Schulman was born in New York City. He has an older brother Ariel who is an actor and filmmaker. They are of German Jewish, Russian Jewish, Polish Jewish, and Romanian Jewish descent. Schulman started taking pictures and became involved with photography after having studied dance for five years. He attended Sarah Lawrence College, studying Photography and Dance from 2004 to 2006. Schulman has admitted that he was expelled from Sarah Lawrence College after punching a female student.
Career
At age 19, he and his brother Ariel started a film and photography production company. In 2004, Schulman started photographing dance as he became involved with the contemporary ballet community in New York City. He is a founding member of the Young Leadership Committee for the youth organization, Leave Out Violence. In 2010, Schulman became the subject of the documentary Catfish, filmed by Ariel and business partnerHenry Joost, in which Schulman met and fell in love with a woman he met online. The premise followed Schulman on the journey of falling in love with a woman he meets on the Internet, but later finds out that she may not be exactly who she claimed to be. In 2012, Schulman became the host and executive producer of the follow up show for MTV, with his filmmaking partner Max Joseph, where he introduces couples in real life who have fallen for each other online but have yet to meet. Schulman has written a book, In Real Life: Love, Lies & Identity in the Digital Age. In it, he gives both personal history and observations gleaned from his work on Catfish. In 2018, Schulman was suspended from his show following an accusation of sexual misconduct. Soon after, upon an investigation, the report of sexual misconduct was found to be "not credible" and the suspension was lifted. He appeared in 2018 film Nobody's Fool playing himself together with Max.
Personal life
Schulman became engaged to Laura Perlongo on May 26, 2016. Laura gave birth to their daughter, Cleo James, on October 21, 2016. On July 22, 2017, Schulman and Perlongo were wed. On January 9, 2019, Laura gave birth to the couple's second child, Beau Bobby Bruce.
