Everything Elle King Has Said About Dad Rob Schneider

In case you didn't know by now, Elle King is Rob Schneider's daughter.

The thrice-married comedian shares Elle—born Tanner Elle Schneider on July 3, 1989—with his first wife, London King. They married in 1988 and split up in 1990, the same year Rob joined Saturday Night Live as a writer and performer.

"I was born out of a Vegas marriage," Elle told Billboard in 2015 after she broke through with her Grammy-nominated hit "Ex's and Oh's," off of her debut album Love Stuff. "My parents got married three days after they met."

Once she turned 18, she added, "I took on my mom’s last name because she raised me, and I wanted to be my own person."

So Elle was never shy about the fact that she considers her mother—who's been married to Elle's stepdad, musician Justin Tesa, since 2000—to be her guiding parental light in this world.

But she's talked about spending summers with her dad growing up and they've even shared the stage here and there: In 2019, father and daughter sang a duet during Rob's set at the Netflix Is a Joke Festival and he joined her for a cover of The Beatles' "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" during a March 2023 show in Seattle. They also rang in this year together performing at New Year's Eve Live: Nashville's Big Bash at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park.

But Elle recently painted a particularly unflattering portrait of Rob on the Dumb Blonde podcast. She said that he sent her to "fat camp" and that, while he brought her to movie sets (she made her acting debut as "Cookie Girl" in 1999's Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo), she'd get in "f--king trouble" if she ever got in the way of him working.

And at this point in time, she said, "I don't want to be associated with him."

Responding to his eldest child putting him on blast, Rob quipped on the Aug. 14 episode The Tucker Carlson Show podcast, "It's fun being a parent, isn't it?"

But, he said, "I want to just tell my daughter: Elle, I love you, and I wish I was the father of my 20s that that you needed. I clearly wasn’t, and I hope you can forgive me for my shortcomings.”

The 60-year-old—who also shares daughters Miranda, 12, and Madeleine, 7, with third wife Patricia Azarcoya Arce—said he felt "terrible" that she felt that way.

And, he noted, "I just want you to know that I don't take anything you say personally."

Rob told Tucker, who asked if it was difficult to refrain from getting combative, "If you love somebody completely, you just—I love her. And all I want for her is to be happy and to heal from this. I apologize completely for and accept responsibility for not being the parent that I am now with my new kids. She didn’t get that, and I missed a lot."

Meanwhile, Elle has had a history of telling it as she's felt it, so if you missed what she's said about her famous father, you can catch up right here:

Rob Schneider married model London King in 1988. Their daughter Elle King was born in July 1989, not long before they split up, and he started at Saturday Night Live in 1990.

"I have lots of memories" from her dad's time on SNL, Elle said on the Watch What Happens Live After Show in January 2023. "I don't know what I'm allowed to share...but I have a memory of Chris Farley and my dad. [Chris], like, plopped me on his lap and he was holding a balloon and doing this thing that he does"—she flashed a vintage Farley smile—"and I remember feeling terrified. I also saw Phil Hartman punch my dad in the face."

When they got in a cab later, Elle recalled, she asked him along the lines of [speaking in a little girl voice], "'Daddy, why'd that mean man hit you?'"

But to this day Elle doesn't know why. "I don't know if he deserved it or not," she said, "he won't tell me."

Elle's mom sent her to live with her dad when she was 13 after she came home with a pierced tongue, the "Ex's and Oh's" singer told Billboard in November 2015.

The timing meant she got to go to Amsterdam while Rob filmed the 2005 sequel Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo.

"So, I can roll amazing joints," Elle said. "Really wonderful."

Spending time with her father, Elle told Billboard, "One important thing I learned is, when you have a big personality, you can walk into a room and be the life of the party, or you can be in a bad mood and suck the f--king life out of it. You have to be really careful with that."

Born Tanner Elle Schneider, she changed her name to Elle King as soon as she was 18.

"I was born out of a Vegas marriage," she told Billboard in February 2015. "My parents got married three days after they met."

And they split up months after having Elle. "Soon as I was 18, I took on my mom's last name because she raised me," she explained, "and I wanted to be my own person."

When "Ex's and Oh's" hit the singles chart, Rob said of his daughter's success on The Meredith Vieira Show, "She did it all on her own, she really did. That’s why she wanted to have her own name, because it’s tough being the kid of a famous person. But she did it on her own, I'm really proud if her."

"Yeah, people know who my dad is," Elle told ABC News in 2015. "But I think that my voice and my music speaks for itself, that I am my own person."

And she later resisted the label that the world was eager to slap on the kids of celebrities who also wanted to pursue that artist life. 

"I don't think I ever really get scooted into the 'nepo baby' thing," Elle said on an August 2024 episode of Off the Vine With Kaitlyn Bristowe. Rather than draw her toward show business, her dad was "more of a deterrent," she added. "We weren't super close when I was starting out performing, when I got signed. We really weren't even speaking."

And it was her mom who was "always just, like, telling me to take lessons," Elle shared, "and she would drive me everywhere. And she took care of me and always made sure that I had some form of a creative outlet."

She also credited Justin Tesa, her stepdad since 2000, for championing her career from the beginning.

"I am only a musician because of him," the singer told ABC News. "I think that it was something that was inside of me, but he saw that and he definitely nurtured it and pushed me to, you know, dig deeper into music and step outside of things that were beyond just pop culture and, uh, learn about good rock and roll."

Elle takes after both parents, just maybe not in the ways you might assume at first glance.

"My dad can sing!" she said on Off the Vine. "He does the best Elvis I've ever heard… He's Filipino, and Filipino people are very gifted in the singing realm, and I definitely got some of my charisma from my dad."

But, she added, "I got my funny from my mom. My mom is the funniest person that I've ever met. We're easy laughers. I wish I would have gotten some of her height." 

"Comedians are not funny," Elle declared on The Kelly Clarkson Show in July 2023 when she was asked what it was like having a famously funny father. "I think a lot of comedians are extremely intelligent and they have this weird vision—and they use all of their joy to make other people laugh, and then off-stage..."

"But," she added, "I also grew up around a lot of my dad's friends and they were always really, really funny to be around."

Elle put her dad on blast on an August 2024 episode of Bunnie XO's Dumb Blonde podcast, sharing that after finally having more of a bond with him as an adult, their relationship was still all over the place, not least because of the political views Rob has been espousing lately.

"Right now, we’re not flowing," Elle said. "I disagree with a lot of the things that he says. And he is just, I don't know, you can want someone to change so much. And ultimately, you can't control anyone else's actions. You can't control people’s feelings. All you can control is how you react and what you do with your feelings."

But, she admitted, "Sometimes I f--king boil up, and I boil over, and I f--king bust my lid.”

When she started getting famous, Elle continued, "and people finally started asking about my dad, my dad called me and was like, 'Don't f--king talk about me in the press.' Like, all right. OK, great. But also it's like, get f--ked. I don’t care."

Elle said on Dumb Blonde that her dad sent her to "fat camp" during the summers when she was 11 and 12, and, one year when she sprained her ankle and didn't lose any weight, she "got in trouble."

"So it’s like very toxic and very silly," she said. And when she started to make a name for herself in the music world, she wasn't eager to play up her family ties, adding, "He's just not nice."

Responding to her Dumb Blonde interview, Rob said on Tucker Carlson's podcast that he wasn't taking anything Elle said personally, he loved her, and he was sorry she was hurting.

"I apologize completely for and accept responsibility for not being the parent that I am now with my new kids," the comedian said. "She didn’t get that, and I missed a lot."