Ben Stiller

Stiller married actress Christine Taylor in May 2000 in Kauai, Hawaii. The pair met in 1999 while filming the television pilot Heat Vision and Jack. Over the course of their careers, they have appeared together in several films and series, including Zoolander, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Tropic Thunder, and Arrested Development. The couple has two children: a daughter, Ella Olivia, and a son, Quinlin Dempsey. After announcing their separation in 2017 following 17 years of marriage, Stiller and Taylor reconciled after living together during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

In June 2014, Stiller was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which was detected early through a prostate-specific antigen test. He underwent surgery to remove his prostate and was declared cancer-free in September 2014, later speaking publicly to promote the importance of preventative health screenings. Stiller has also addressed false rumors regarding his mental health, clarifying in interviews that an offhand comment from early in his career had been misinterpreted and that he does not have bipolar disorder.

Benjamin Edward Meara Stiller was born on November 30, 1965, in New York City and grew up on Manhattan's Upper West Side. He is the son of celebrated comedic performers Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, and the younger brother of actress Amy Stiller. Immersed in show business from an early age, he began creating Super 8 films as a child. During his high school years, he played drums for the post-punk band Capital Punishment, which released the studio album Roadkill in 1982. He briefly studied film at the University of California, Los Angeles, before leaving after nine months to pursue acting in New York.

Stiller gained recognition in 1986 after appearing in the Broadway revival of John Guare's play The House of Blue Leaves alongside John Mahoney. While working on the production, Stiller created The Hustler of Money, a parody of Martin Scorsese's The Color of Money featuring himself and Mahoney. The short film caught the attention of Saturday Night Live, which aired the sketch in 1987 and later hired Stiller as a writer and featured player in 1989, though he departed after four episodes to pursue short-form filmmaking independently.

Following the success of his independent parody shorts, MTV greenlit The Ben Stiller Show in 1990. Although MTV canceled the experimental sketch program after one season, Fox revived the series in 1992. The Fox run featured an ensemble cast and writing team that included Judd Apatow, Janeane Garofalo, Andy Dick, and Bob Odenkirk. Despite low network ratings and a swift cancellation, the show earned strong critical praise and posthumously won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program in 1993.

Stiller made his feature directorial debut with the 1994 comedy-drama Reality Bites, working alongside co-stars Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke. The film explored the lives and frustrations of post-college young adults and became a defining touchstone of Generation X cinema. He returned to directing with the dark comedy The Cable Guy (1996), starring Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick, before starring in the acclaimed independent comedy Flirting with Disaster.

Stiller achieved mainstream box-office stardom in 1998 with his leading role opposite Cameron Diaz in the Farrelly brothers' comedy There's Something About Mary. In 2000, he starred as male nurse Greg Focker alongside Robert De Niro in Meet the Parents. The film grossed over $330 million worldwide and established a lucrative comedy franchise, followed by Meet the Fockers in 2004 and Little Fockers in 2010.

Throughout the 2000s, Stiller frequently collaborated with comedic contemporaries like Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, and Jack Black. He directed, co-wrote, and starred in the fashion industry satire Zoolander (2001) as Derek Zoolander, later returning to direct Zoolander 2 in 2016. In 2004 alone, he headlined major commercial comedies including Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Starsky & Hutch, and Along Came Polly. He also voiced the lead character Alex the Lion in DreamWorks Animation's Madagascar trilogy (2005-2012) and led the blockbuster fantasy-adventure trilogy Night at the Museum (2006-2014).

In 2008, Stiller directed, co-wrote, produced, and starred in the Hollywood war satire Tropic Thunder alongside Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black. In 2013, he directed and headlined a contemporary adaptation of James Thurber's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

Alongside his broad comedy career, Stiller has taken on dramatic and character-driven roles. He appeared as Chas Tenenbaum in Wes Anderson's ensemble comedy-drama The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and starred in multiple films directed by Noah Baumbach, including Greenberg (2010), While We're Young (2014), and The Meyerowitz Stories (2017).

In the late 2010s, Stiller shifted significant focus toward directing high-profile dramatic television projects. In 2018, he directed all seven episodes of the Showtime limited series Escape at Dannemora, chronicling a real-life maximum-security prison breakout in upstate New York. The project earned him a Directors Guild of America Award and two Primetime Emmy nominations. In 2022, he executive produced and directed episodes of the dystopian sci-fi drama Severance for Apple TV+, earning further critical acclaim and Emmy nominations for his direction.