The son of veteran comic actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, this nerdy-sexy player took any acting work he could find in his early twenties — stage, small or big screen, comedy or drama — in an effort to jumpstart his career. A brief writing/performing stint on
Saturday Night Live in 1989 helped him land his own eponymous sketch-comedy series on MTV later that year, and while the show quickly fizzled, it laid the groundwork for his 1992 Fox series of the same name costarring Andy Dick and Janeane Garofalo. Although
The Ben Stiller Show — which he wrote, produced, directed and starred in — only lasted one season, his skewed sensibility and pop-culture-infused humor turned him into a Gen-X darling. In 1994 he made his feature directing debut with
Reality Bites, a slacker comedy in which he also costarred. From then on Stiller was omnipresent, tackling supporting and leading movie roles, TV guest spots, even appearing as himself in videos (P. Diddy's "Bad Boy for Life"). He tended to alternate between two comic characterizations — nebbishy underdog (
Meet the Parents,
There's Something About Mary) and testosterone-heavy villain (
Dodgeball,
Heavy Weights) — with a few notable exceptions (an overprotective widowed father in
The Royal Tenenbaums, a junkie in
Permanent Midnight) that proved, if given the chance, he could be versatile. Still, audiences seemed to prefer his stereotypical shtick. Off screen he dated a bevy of beauties (Jeanne Tripplehorn, Amanda Peet, Claire Forlani) before marrying actress Christine Taylor.
Ben Stiller Fast Facts:- Began shooting Super-8 movies when he was 10.
- Early forays into show business included working as an intern in 1983 on Alan Thicke's Thicke of the Night and producing a short parody of the 1986 film The Color of Money called The Hustler of Money in 1988. The film got him noticed by Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels, who offered him a writing gig in 1989.
- Co-authored a mock self-help book along with Janeane Garofalo in 1999 entitled Feel This Book: An Essential Guide to Self-Empowerment, Spiritual Supremacy and Sexual Satisfaction.
- Frequently works with actor Owen Wilson, including The Cable Guy (1996), Permanent Midnight (1998), Meet the Parents (2000), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Zoolander (2001), Meet the Fockers (2004), Starsky & Hutch (2004), and the unaired pilot for the spoof action series Heat Vision and Jack (1999).
- Member of the so-called Frat Pack which includes Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson.
- Ben Stiller Relationships:
- Amy Stiller - Sister
- Anne Meara - Mother
- Christine Taylor - Wife
- Ella Olivia Stiller - Daughter
- Jeanne Tripplehorn - Ex-fiancée
- Jerry Stiller - Father
- Quinlin Dempsey Stiller - Son
- Ben Stiller Awards:
- 1993 Emmy: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing in a Variety or Music Program - Winner
- 2006 Emmy: Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series - Nominee
- College:
- Attended University of California, Los Angeles, CA
