READ THIS NEXT: See Elliott From E.T. Now at 50. Although he’s said he’s eager to leave the state where he was raised by parents, Ron and Debbie, Shaffer currently enjoys a quiet life with his family outside Santa Clarita, California. (An older brother lives in Washington State.) The Middle star appears especially close with “Momma Debbie,” who homeschooled him before he found stardom and who, like her son, has a form of osteogenesis imperfecta—otherwise known as “brittle bone disease.” Per their social media content, the two now lead a largely back-to-basics existence, together raising chickens, watching homesteading-related content, thrifting, and reading the Bible. Like his former The Middle co-star Patricia Heaton, Shaffer is vocal about his Christian beliefs. He specified in a 2022 YouTube Q&A that he is a Messianic Jew, saying, “I’m a Jew who believes Jesus is the Messiah.” Shaffer was baptized while still on the show at the age of 15 and credits God with his career success. “I know how I got where I am, and that it’s all because of Him,” the actor said on The Lucas Miles Show. Since leaving The Middle, Shaffer has only appeared on screen once, in a cameo in the Netflix series Never Have I Ever, created by Mindy Kaling. For more celebrity updates sent right to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. When he’s not voice acting, Shaffer hosts a Twitch channel with more than 4,000 followers where he streams tactical gaming sessions three times a week. He also has a YouTube vlog where he posts Q&As, livestreams, and other content. “Making my own network is essentially the goal,” he said of his growing web presence in 2021.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb Shaffer has a passion for storytelling nurtured by his early experiences. While on The Middle, he participated in the Warner Bros Directors’ Workshop, an eight-week master class on television directing. In 2016, Shaffer he directed two films for the Ronald Reagan Memorial Library. In February, Shaffer announced he would release his own series, Surviving SHTF, named for the acronym for “[expletive] hits the fan” used by prepping and survivalist communities. He described the work as “a studio-level quality show in the setting of a video game” and “a post-apocalyptic drama that follows a young Christian streamer turned survivor—Yours Truly— as he attempts to rebuild and reclaim the world from the undead.” The nine-episode series is now available on YouTube. When a fan asked if he thought there should be a revival of The Middle in a Q&A earlier this year, Shaffer said he could be persuaded—at the right price. “I mean, they’d have to pay me a lot of money,” he said. “I don’t think that it will happen. If they did, I think it would be cool to have a reunion movie or maybe like a limited series…I don’t think we should attempt to do another 10 years, or nine.” That is not to say he wouldn’t return to his past work for the right opportunity, however. He explained it would take a lot less to get him back on The Lion Guard, which he praised as making him “fall in love with being an actor again. Shaffer said he loved working on the Lion King spinoff so much that he would reprise the role of Ono for free.
