Eleven years before he would be charged with the double murder of his own parents, a timid Nick Reiner walked into the Family Guy production offices with his famous dad by his side.
The then-21-year-old was fresh out of rehab and hoping that breaking into the family business could be his saving grace.
Rob – himself a ‘nepo baby’ who had followed in his comedian father Carl Reiner’s footsteps by cementing himself as a sitcom star on All In The Family and then a director of beloved films such as When Harry Met Sally – pulled some strings to get his troubled son a gig on the famous cartoon show.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, one of Nick’s former colleagues said that in a somewhat desperate plea to Family Guy’s executive producer, Rob said: ‘Hey, my son’s coming out of rehab and getting back on his feet and I want to find him a job.’
Nick was given an internship, in which he was ‘not supposed to do very much,’ per our source, who added: ‘This was clearly a favor for Rob and I would speculate that there were some sort of terms. So, I was working my butt off but Nick would just sort of hang out. But he was lovely to have around.’
The former production assistant said Nick got along with his colleagues and although he had ‘introverted energy’ and was quiet, they also found him funny – in a ‘dark-humored’ sort of way – and interesting, as he was transparent about his hardships.
Nick, now 32, had struggled with addiction since his teenage years and ended up going to rehab 18 times. He had been homeless for periods, but now lived in his parents Rob and Michele Reiner’s guesthouse at their lavish Brentwood, California, estate.
He has an older brother Jake, 34, and younger sister Romy, 27, but our source said: ‘It felt like he was the black sheep of his very perfect Hollywood family, so from a very young age, he started using drugs.
‘He had so many resources available to him. The idea that he couldn’t get any money is crazy. The idea that he would be willing to be homeless instead of going home to his beautiful mansion was crazy to me.’
The drug use also led to debauchery, such as stealing $200 from his father to lose his virginity to a prostitute, and destructive fits of rage.
However, as the former Family Guy staffer recalled, in 2014, Nick was trying to turn his life around and ‘figure out what it was like to be sober’.
‘He was in a really cool spot in that he was trying to come out of it and really figure out who he was,’ the source said.
Nick leaned on his new colleagues for support, who encouraged him to pursue a career in stand-up and comedy writing.
‘To me, it felt like, here’s this dude who didn’t have any direction. All of a sudden, he’s like, why don’t I dabble in comedy? I think what was happening was that he was sort of using that as a therapeutic outlet for his sobriety,’ the source said.
Much as with the job at Family Guy, Nick was able to easily book sets at big comedic venues, per our source, given his ‘pedigree’.
‘He wouldn’t have been able to get these spots that he got [at comedy venues], unless he had his dad’s influence and he wouldn’t have his job at Family Guy if he didn’t have his dad’s influence,’ the source said. ‘That’s what I keep coming back to is that Rob was trying to see his son succeed.’
Rob was so involved in his son’s recovery, in fact, that he would drop Nick off and pick him up from his internship every single day, our source added.
‘It was very admirable that Rob was so connected with Nick’s recovery and trying to help him, the source said. ‘The way that I piece it together was that Rob and his mom [Michele] were trying to get him out of this terrible hole that he was in.’
And so, armed with the encouragement of his father, Nick took the stage at famous comedy venues around Hollywood for about five minutes a time, while delivering punchy lines that poked fun at his deepest darkest secrets.
‘He was sort of grasping with how hard addiction and sobriety was, so I think one of the main jokes he co-wrote was: “If you want to live forever, try to do a year sober so it’ll feel like eternity”,’ the former colleague said.
A similar line eventually made it into the 2016 film Being Charlie, a movie that father-son duo Rob and Nick made together and admitted had been inspired by their real-life relationship.
Aside from his stand-up sets, Nick also shared his dark humor in comedic videos online.
In a resurfaced YouTube skit from 2016 that the Daily Mail has obtained, Nick jokes with dark humor that he works out ‘like ISIS’ fighters; quips, ‘F**k Donald Trump. No, he’s my man, he’s my man’; and says, in response to a loud barking dog, ‘I’m going to go kill that f**king dog.’
Nick’s sister Romy also makes a brief appearance in the video, sat beside him while puffing on a cigarette.
The skit takes an eerie turn, however, when drug use seemingly takes place on camera. In one scene, someone is seen snorting a white powder that looks like cocaine.
Nick’s comedy career never really took off, and at age 32, he was still living at home with his parents. His mental health continued to decline and Rob, 78, and Michele, 70, were ‘at their wits end,’ a longtime family friend told the Daily Mail.
‘It was very difficult. Rob and Michele did everything, everything, everything in their power to help Nick,’ the second source added.
On Saturday night, Rob and Michele brought Nick with them to Conan O’Brien’s holiday party because they reportedly ‘wanted to keep an eye on him,’ as he had been exhibiting erratic behavior in recent weeks.
However, Nick stood out like a sore thumb at the starry bash, reportedly getting into a tense disagreement with actor Bill Hader and loudly fighting with his father.
After the Reiners got home later that night, tragedy struck.
Prosecutors claim Nick killed both his parents. Sources told the Daily Mail that he allegedly slit their throats in bed in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Nick has since has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
Multiple insiders have said that when news broke that two people had been found dead in Rob’s home, they suspected Nick had done it.
However, the former Family Guy colleague – who met Nick at a brief time in his life in when it seemed his future could have gone in a very different direction – did not.
‘When I heard the news that there were two bodies found dead in Rob Reiner’s house, I instantly was going to hop on to Instagram and send Nick a DM, like, “Oh my gosh, if you need anything let me know”,’ the source said.
‘Then, all of a sudden, I heard that Nick had been detained. [He] was definitely someone who had a troubled past but also it’s wild.’
