Picture a woman standing outside a bar in downtown New York, having a smoke. A Dutch guy on vacation starts chatting with her. Nothing fancy. Just two people talking on a sidewalk.
That woman was Amber Ruffin. The man was Jan Schiltmeijer. And that small moment turned into a marriage that has now lasted over fifteen years.
Here’s the part most people miss. Jan Schiltmeijer already had a good life back in Amsterdam. He had a painting business. He had clients. He had built it all himself, from scratch. Then he gave it up and moved to New York for her.
Most articles online just call him “Amber Ruffin’s husband.” That’s fair — that’s how most people find him. But he’s a real working artist with his own career, and it started years before he ever met her.
In this article, we’ll cover his early life, his art training, his painting style, the famous faces he has painted, how he met Amber, their wedding, and their choice not to have kids. We’ll also be honest about one thing: a lot of what’s online about Jan Schiltmeijer doesn’t match up. Different sites say different things. We’ll point that out as we go.
Who Is Jan Schiltmeijer?
Jan Schiltmeijer is a Dutch painter who lives and works in New York City. He has been painting full-time since 2004. That’s the short answer.
He is married to Amber Ruffin, the American comedian and writer. They tied the knot in 2010. Most people learn his name through her — they watch her shows, get curious, and start searching.
But here’s the thing worth saying clearly. He was an artist first. He went full-time as a painter four years before he even met Amber. His career didn’t grow out of her fame. It grew out of his own work.
His main focus is portraits, especially of famous faces. He built his client list the slow way, by word of mouth, long before he had a website.
He also keeps a very low profile. No Twitter. No Facebook. Just an Instagram account where he shares his paintings. He doesn’t chase attention, which is probably why people keep searching for him.
Jan Schiltmeijer’s Early Life
Jan Schiltmeijer was born in Haarlem, a city in the Netherlands. It sits just west of Amsterdam — about twenty minutes away by train. It’s an old city, known for its market square and its art history.
He didn’t stay there, though. He grew up in Amsterdam. That’s where he spent his school years and where his interest in art really took shape.
Amsterdam is a good place to fall in love with art. It’s a city full of museums, galleries, and street art. Growing up around that leaves a mark on a kid who likes to draw.
One article says he did both his elementary and high school years in Amsterdam. That fits with the rest of the story, though his own website is the better source here.
Now, an honest note. Very little about his early life is public. There are no long interviews about his childhood. No details about his parents or siblings. He simply hasn’t talked about it much, and there’s no reason he should have to.
His Art Training and First Job
Here’s something that says a lot about Jan Schiltmeijer. He didn’t just pick up a brush and hope for the best. He trained first.
He enrolled in a specialized three-year course in Art Direction. Art direction is the work behind how things look — the layout of an ad, the colors in a campaign, how images are put together. It’s design work with a commercial edge.
After finishing the course, he worked in art direction for about two years. Real jobs, real clients, real deadlines.
But it wasn’t the thing he wanted to do forever. So he left it.
Why does this matter? Because those years taught him skills that show up in his paintings today — composition, color balance, how to make an image grab your eye. And because he made the jump to painting in 2004, a full four years before Amber Ruffin walked into his life.
Becoming a Full-Time Painter in 2004
In 2004, Jan Schiltmeijer went all in. He quit art direction and became a full-time painter.
There was no safety net. No big gallery backing him. Just his own work and whatever came from it.
And here’s the impressive bit. He built his entire client list without a website. In the mid-2000s, that was already an unusual way to work. Most people were going online. He wasn’t.
Instead, his business grew by word of mouth. Someone saw a painting, liked it, and told someone else. That person told another. Slowly, the work spoke for itself.
Only later did he launch a website to show his portfolio properly.
That early stretch mattered more than it might look. A business built on word of mouth is a business built on reputation. And a reputation travels — which is exactly what he’d need when he later packed up and moved to a different country.
Jan Schiltmeijer’s Painting Style
Jan Schiltmeijer paints original acrylic pieces. His signature is a layer-over-layer technique. Instead of laying down one flat coat of color, he builds it up in stages — layer on layer on layer.
The result is color with real depth. Rich, deep tones and bright, vivid images. It’s the kind of thing that looks different in person than it does in a photo.
His specialty is portraits. Faces. That’s where his skill sits.
He’s also picky about his materials, and he doesn’t hide it. High-quality paint. High-grade equipment. Durable canvases. The idea is simple — if someone pays for a painting, it should last.
That focus on customer satisfaction runs through how he talks about his work. He wants clients to feel they got real value. It’s not a glamorous pitch, but it’s an honest one, and it’s part of why his business grew without any marketing behind it.
Famous Faces He Has Painted
His website and social media have featured portraits of some very recognizable people. Bruce Lee, the martial arts legend. Muhammad Ali, the boxing great. Bryan Cranston as Walter White from Breaking Bad — a face that’s become its own kind of icon.
Other names that come up across different sources include Samuel L. Jackson, Nina Simone, and Marilyn Monroe. One article even mentions C-3PO from Star Wars.
He doesn’t only paint celebrities, though. He has painted musicians he admires, actors he likes, and members of his own family.
Now, a small but important note. Every article lists a slightly different set of names. That’s a hint that these sites are copying each other rather than checking his actual work.
If you want to know what he really paints, go to the source. His website and his Instagram are the only real record.
How He Met Amber Ruffin
Amber Ruffin had moved to Amsterdam to perform with Boom Chicago. It’s an international comedy group based there — a training ground for a lot of comedians. Jan Schiltmeijer was living in Amsterdam too, running his painting business.
Not quite. Here’s the twist. They actually met in New York.
Amber was in New York touring with Boom Chicago. Jan happened to be there on vacation. Two people who lived in the same European city crossed paths thousands of miles away.
She was outside a bar downtown, having a smoke. He started talking to her. That was it. That was the whole beginning.
Amber has told this story herself in interviews. A lot of websites just say “they met in Amsterdam” — a shortcut that misses the better version. They dated for two years after that.
Their 2010 Wedding and Move to New York
Amber’s comedy career was pulling her toward the United States. Jan Schiltmeijer had a business in Amsterdam that he’d spent six years building. Clients. Reputation. All of it.
He chose to leave. The couple moved to the US around 2011.
Think about what that meant. He arrived in a new country and had to build his client list all over again — this time in the New York art scene, which is not an easy room to walk into.
But he’d done it once already, and by then he had a website to help. The work spoke for itself again.
It’s a quiet kind of story. Usually you hear about the wife following the husband’s career. Here it went the other way, and nobody made a big deal about it.
Why They Don’t Have Kids
Married since 2010, and no children. This is one of the most searched things about the couple, so let’s be clear about it.
Amber has been open about being child-free. She’s talked about it publicly, including on Michelle Wolf’s show The Break, where she pushed back on the odd, negative things people say about the choice.
It’s a decision, not a delay. That distinction matters. Jan supports it. That’s the whole story.
You’ll see articles saying “fans are hopeful to see them with a child soon.” That’s not reporting — that’s a website guessing. When two adults have made a clear choice and said so out loud, treating it as a phase they’ll grow out of is just noise.
Being an Interracial Couple in America
Amber Ruffin is Black. Jan Schiltmeijer is white and Dutch. Moving to America meant facing things he hadn’t faced before.
Jan has spoken about one moment in particular. He and Amber were in a store, and an employee followed them around — because his wife is Black. It saddened him.
That’s a small story with a big point. He grew up in the Netherlands. In America, he got a first-hand look at what Amber deals with regularly.
Amber’s comedy talks about race in America directly and often. She doesn’t dance around it. Having a partner who has seen it up close matters.
They support each other through it. That’s the honest version — not a lesson, just two people paying attention.
Who Is Amber Ruffin?
Amber Mildred Ruffin was born on January 9, 1979, in Omaha, Nebraska. She’s the youngest of six siblings. Her parents are James and Theresa Ruffin. She graduated from Benson High School in Omaha.
Here’s a lovely early detail. As a kid, she learned sign language so she could talk with a deaf neighbor.
In 2014, she joined Late Night with Seth Meyers as a writer. That made her the first Black woman to write for a US network late-night show. A real milestone.
She later hosted her own show, The Amber Ruffin Show, on Peacock.
Her other credits are long: Detroiters, Tuca & Bertie, Drunk History, A Black Lady Sketch Show, Central Park, Girls5eva, Big Mouth, and Gutsy.
His Instagram and Online Presence
If you want to see Jan Schiltmeijer’s actual work, there’s really only one place: Instagram, at @janschiltmeijer.
He posts his paintings there. Finished pieces, works in progress. That’s the account.
His follower count is small — different sites report somewhere between 737 and 900-plus. Either way, tiny by celebrity-spouse standards.
Compare that to Amber, who has hundreds of thousands of followers.
No Facebook. No Twitter. He also has his own website with his portfolio, which is the best place to see his range.
The gap between his following and hers tells you something. He’s not using the marriage. The account is about the paintings.
Interesting Facts About Jan Schiltmeijer
- He was a painter before he was a husband. He went full-time in 2004 — four years before he met Amber Ruffin.
- They met in the wrong city. Both lived in Amsterdam. They met in New York.
- A cigarette started it all. Amber was outside a downtown bar having a smoke. He walked up and started talking.
- He built a business with no website. In the mid-2000s, when everyone was going online, his clients came purely by word of mouth.
- He gave it all up. Six years of building a client base in Amsterdam — left behind so they could move to New York around 2011.
- He trained in art direction first. A three-year specialized course, then two years working in the field, before he switched to painting.
- He paints icons. Bruce Lee, Muhammad Ali, Nina Simone, Samuel L. Jackson, Marilyn Monroe, and Bryan Cranston as Walter White.
Bottom Line
Jan Schiltmeijer is a working artist who happens to be married to someone famous. Not the other way around.
He trained in art direction, worked in it for two years, then went full-time as a painter in 2004. He built a business in Amsterdam with no website and nothing but word of mouth. Then he left it behind and rebuilt in New York, because that’s where his wife’s career was going.
That’s the real story here. Not a net worth number that three sites can’t agree on.
The best parts are the small ones. The forgotten anniversaries. The high fives. A guy who quietly moved countries and started over.
He’s also a private person who didn’t ask for any of this attention. He just paints. If you’re curious, skip the gossip roundups and go look at the actual paintings.
(FAQs)
How did Amber Ruffin meet Jan Schiltmeijer?
They met in 2008 in New York. She was touring with Boom Chicago; he was on vacation. They started talking outside a bar. Both were living in Amsterdam at the time.
Do Amber Ruffin and Jan Schiltmeijer have children?
No. Amber has spoken publicly about being child-free. It’s a decision they’ve made together.
What is Jan Schiltmeijer’s net worth?
Nobody actually knows. Websites claim anywhere from $150,000 to $1 million with no real sourcing. Treat those numbers as guesses.
How old is Jan Schiltmeijer?
His date of birth has never been made public. Any age you see online is an estimate.
What kind of art does Jan Schiltmeijer make?
Original acrylic portraits, built with a layer-over-layer technique that gives deep color and bright images.
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