Nick Reiner’s former classmate was in disbelief when he heard the screenwriter was arrested for his suspected involvement in parents Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner’s murders.
“There [were] no signs of anything leading to something even remotely close to this in the slightest,” Brett Ferber, who went to school with Nick when they were teenagers, said during a Monday, December 22, episode of NewsNation’s On Balance.
Ferber described Nick as “very chummy” when they were classmates around the ages of 16 and 17.
“We weren’t buddy-buddy. We weren’t sharing secrets till 4 a.m. about life’s great mysteries or anything like that, but we were in the same building,” he added. “We played basketball. We did different things together, and he was just, like, a dude.”
Ferber continued, “He had a good sense of humor, a little self-deprecating. I’m very, you know, perplexed by the disparity between who I knew and the stories that I’m seeing. I’m definitely having some trouble wrapping my head around that. Still do.”
Rob and Michele were found dead in their Brentwood, California, home on December 14. Hours later, Nick was arrested near the University of Southern California campus and subsequently charged with two counts of first-degree murder. If convicted, he faces life in prison without parole or the death penalty.
Ferber revealed when he first heard the news of Rob and Michele’s murders and Nick’s arrest, he had to do a “second take” and refresh his phone to make sure the story was real.
“I kind of froze for a second, and I was like, ‘What?’ I don’t really have any experience hearing news like that and being able to understand or make sense of it,” he explained.
Nick made his first court appearance on Wednesday, December 17. Lawyer Alan Jackson told the court his client would not yet be entering a plea. An arraignment was set for January 7, 2026.
Following Nick’s arrest, a podcast episode resurfaced where he discussed his drug addiction and wrecking his parents’ guest house.
“It’s not much of a story,” Nick said on an August 2018 episode of the “Dopey” podcast. “I got totally spun out on uppers — I think it was coke and something else — and I was up for days on end. I started punching out different things in my guest house.”
Nick said, “Everything in the guest house got wrecked,” including the TV. During the episode, Nick called himself a “drug addict.”
Ferber noted he was shocked by Nick’s actions when he heard the podcast episode.
“Knowing that this guy was on a podcast talking about breaking things in a guest house like a caveman in a cryo center, it doesn’t make sense to me,” Ferber said on Monday. “When I knew the guy, he was very chill, you know, it was hard to get him off the couch. We were all kind of lazy. We were 16-year-old guys.”
Ahead of Nick’s arraignment, his siblings Jake, 34, and Romy, 27, shared a statement thanking their supporters. (Rob also adopted an older daughter, Tracy, 61, during his marriage to late ex-wife Penny Marshall.)
“Jake and Romy Reiner remain grateful for the outpouring of love and support they have received,” Jake and Romy’s spokesperson told People on Monday. “They will share information about a memorial service honoring their parents at a later date.”
