Ben Shapiro

Shapiro has been married to Mor Toledano, a physician, since 2008. They practice Orthodox Judaism and have children.

In 2020, Shapiro announced that he and his family were leaving California. The Daily Wire moved its headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee, while Shapiro and his family relocated to South Florida.

Shapiro grew up in Burbank, California, in a Conservative Jewish family. His mother was a television company executive, while his father, David Shapiro, was a composer and piano player. His family began observing Orthodox Judaism when Shapiro was a child.

He began playing violin at five and performed at age 12 at an Israel Bonds banquet. He skipped the third and ninth grades, graduated from high school at 16, and enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles. He graduated from UCLA in 2004 with a degree in political science before earning a cum laude Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 2007.

Shapiro became a nationally syndicated columnist at 17, making him the youngest nationally syndicated columnist in the United States. His first book, Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth, was published in 2004. His later nonfiction books include Primetime Propaganda, Bullies, The Right Side of History, and The Authoritarian Moment. He also published the novel True Allegiance in 2017.

After law school, Shapiro worked at the law firm Goodwin Procter for 10 months before leaving private practice. He later operated Benjamin Shapiro Legal Consulting in Los Angeles. In 2012, he became editor-at-large of Breitbart News, a position he left in 2016 after criticizing the outlet's handling of reporter Michelle Fields's dispute with Corey Lewandowski.

Shapiro and producer Jeremy Boreing co-founded The Daily Wire in 2015. Shapiro served as the company's editor-in-chief before becoming editor emeritus in 2020. The company developed podcasts, streamed programs, scripted films, and documentaries.

Shapiro hosts The Ben Shapiro Show, a daily political podcast and radio program. Westwood One began syndicating the show to radio in 2018, and the program was carried by more than 200 stations by 2019. He has also hosted The Ben Shapiro Election Special on Fox News and regularly speaks at college campuses about conservative politics, free speech, and open debate.

Shapiro describes his political outlook as generally libertarian on the role of government and conservative on social structures. His commentary has focused on abortion, gun policy, climate change, LGBTQ issues, immigration, Israel, race, religion, and the role of universities and popular culture. He opposes abortion, supports capital punishment, favors repealing the Affordable Care Act, and criticizes transgender rights and same-sex marriage.

His rapid-fire style and arguments about social conservatism have made him a prominent and controversial speaker. A 2015 television appearance during a discussion of Caitlyn Jenner's transition went viral after Shapiro said, "Facts don't care about your feelings." He has also drawn large protests and heightened security at speaking events, including appearances at California State University, Los Angeles, DePaul University, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Shapiro opposed Donald Trump's candidacy during the 2016 presidential election and supported Ted Cruz. He later supported Trump in the 2020 election, while rejecting Trump's false claim that he had won the election before the result was determined and criticizing the January 6 Capitol attack.

During the 2024 Republican primaries, Shapiro favored Ron DeSantis before supporting Trump after DeSantis left the race. Shapiro later helped host a fundraiser for Trump and interviewed him on The Ben Shapiro Show.

In 2025, Shapiro published Lions and Scavengers: The True Story of America (and Her Critics). The book divides Americans into two symbolic groups: Lions, whom he presents as builders of Western civilization, and Scavengers, whom he portrays as seeking to undermine it.

Shapiro has also worked in music and theater. He was featured with Tom MacDonald on the 2024 rap song "Facts", which reached number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. Shapiro and his father co-produced We Will Rise, a musical about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising that ran in Israel from October through December 2024.