Ben Stiller Biography: Wife, Children, Age, Net Worth, Instagram, Movies, Height, Wikipedia, Parents

Ben Stiller is one of Hollywood’s most versatile and successful stars, who has excelled as an actor, comedian, writer, director, and producer.

He is the son of the legendary comedy duo Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara and inherited their talent and passion for making people laugh.

He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his comedy show and later directed and starred in several hit movies, such as Reality Bites, There’s Something About Mary, Zoolander, Tropic Thunder, and Night at the Museum.

He is also known for his voice work in the Madagascar franchise and his collaborations with prominent comedians, such as Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, and Steve Carell.

Profile

• Full name: Benjamin Edward Meara Stiller
• Date of birth: November 30, 1965
• Age: 59 years old
• Gender: Male
• Place of birth: New York City, New York, U.S.
• Nationality: American
• Profession: Actor, comedian, writer, director, producer
• Height: 5 ft 7 in (170 cm)
• Parents: Jerry Stiller (father), Anne Meara (mother)
• Siblings: Amy Stiller (sister)
• Spouse: Christine Taylor (ex-wife)
• Children: Ella Stiller (daughter), Quinlin Stiller (son)
• Relationship status: Divorced
• Net worth: $200 million

Early Life & Education

Ben Stiller, who is 59 years old, was born in New York City on November 30, 1965, to Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, both famous comedians and actors.

He grew up on the Upper West Side and was exposed to the entertainment industry from a young age.

He often appeared on television with his parents and made his amateur films with a Super-8 camera, parodying popular movies of the time.

He attended the Calhoun School, a private school in Manhattan, where he developed his interest in acting and comedy. He also performed in several school plays and musicals and joined a comedy troupe called The Short Circus.

After graduating from high school, he enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles, but dropped out after nine months to pursue his acting career.

He returned to New York and interned at the Actors Studio, where he learned from renowned actors and directors.

Personal Life

Ben Stiller married actress Christine Taylor in 2000 after meeting her on the set of a TV pilot.

They have two children, Ella and Quinlin, who have also appeared in some of their father’s movies. Stiller and Taylor separated in 2017 but remain friends and co-parents. Stiller has not been romantically linked with anyone else since then.

Stiller is Jewish and had a bar mitzvah ceremony when he was 13. He has said he is not very religious but respects his heritage and culture. He is also a fan of the New York Yankees and has a collection of Star Trek memorabilia.

He supports the Democratic Party and has endorsed candidates such as Obama and Hillary Clinton. He is also a friend of former President Bill Clinton and has attended several events hosted by the Clinton Foundation.

Career

Ben Stiller started his career in theatre and television and landed his first Broadway role in 1986 in John Guare’s The House of Blue Leaves.

He later reprised his role in the TV adaptation of the play in 1987. He also had bit parts in films such as Empire of the Sun, Fresh Horses, and Next of Kin.

In 1989, he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live as a writer and performer but left after a few months due to creative differences.

He then created his sketch comedy show, The Ben Stiller Show, which aired on MTV in 1990 and Fox in 1992-93.

The show featured a young ensemble cast, including Janeane Garofalo, Andy Dick, and Bob Odenkirk, and parodied various aspects of pop culture, such as music videos, celebrities, and movies.

The show won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety or Music Program but was canceled after 13 episodes due to low ratings.

Stiller made his directorial debut with Reality Bites in 1994, a dramedy about a group of disillusioned young adults in the post-college era.

He also starred alongside Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, and Garofalo in the film. The film was a moderate success and became a cult classic among Generation X.

He then directed and starred in The Cable Guy in 1996, a dark comedy about a lonely and obsessive cable installer, played by Jim Carrey, who befriends and terrorizes a customer, played by Stiller.

The film received mixed reviews and was considered a box office disappointment but has gained a cult following. Stiller also appeared in other films in the mid-1990s, such as Flirting with Disaster, Happy Gilmore, and The Zero Effect.

Stiller’s breakthrough as a leading man came in 1998 with There’s Something About Mary, a raunchy comedy directed by the Farrelly brothers, in which he played an unfortunate man who tries to reconnect with his high school crush, played by Cameron Diaz. The film was a huge hit and earned Stiller an MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance.

He then starred in several successful comedies in the early 2000s, such as Mystery Men, Meet the Parents, Zoolander, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.

He also directed and starred in Zoolander, a satire of the fashion industry, in which he played a dim-witted male model opposite Owen Wilson and Will Ferrell. The film was a modest success and became a cult favourite.

Stiller continued to work as a director and actor in the mid-2000s, with films such as Along Came Polly, Starsky & Hutch, Meet the Fockers, and Night at the Museum.

He also voiced the character of Alex the Lion in the animated film Madagascar and its sequels. He also produced films and TV shows, such as Blades of Glory, Tropic Thunder, and The Big Year.

He directed and starred in Tropic Thunder in 2008, a comedy about a group of actors unwittingly involved in a real war while filming a Vietnam War epic.

The film featured an ensemble cast, including Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Tom Cruise, and Nick Nolte. It earned Stiller a Directors Guild of America Award and several MTV Movie Awards.

Stiller also received critical acclaim for his performance as a Jewish-American actor who undergoes a controversial skin pigmentation procedure to play a black soldier.

Stiller’s later films include The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, a remake of the 1947 film, in which he played a timid magazine employee who escapes into his fantasies; Zoolander 2, a sequel to his 2001 film, which received negative reviews; and The Meyerowitz Stories, a drama directed by Noah Baumbach, in which he played the son of a dysfunctional family, alongside Adam Sandler and Dustin Hoffman.

He also reprised his role as Greg Focker in Little Fockers and as Larry Daley in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.

He also voiced the character of Bernard in Megamind and appeared in cameos in films such as Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues and The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.

Stiller has also worked in television and has appeared in shows such as Friends, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, and Extras. He also created and produced several TV shows, such as The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail, Another Period, and Big Time in Hollywood, FL.

He also directed and executive produced the Showtime limited series Escape at Dannemora, based on the true story of a prison break in New York in 2015. The series starred Benicio del Toro, Patricia Arquette, and Paul Dano.

They earned Stiller a Directors Guild of America Award and two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Limited Series and Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series.

He also directed and executive produced the Apple TV+ series Severance, a workplace thriller starring Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, and Christopher Walken.

The series received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series.

Awards

Ben Stiller has received various awards and honours for his work in film and television, including:

• An Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety or Music Program for The Ben Stiller Show in 1993.
• A Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy in 2011.
• A Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor: Comedy for Night at the Museum in 2007.
• Several MTV Movie Awards, including Best Comedic Performance for There’s Something About Mary in 1999, Best Fight for Zoolander in 2002, Best Villain for Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story in 2005, and Best Comedic Performance for Tropic Thunder in 2009.
• A Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series for Escape at Dannemora in 2019.
• A Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Limited Series for Escape at Dannemora in 2019.
• Two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Limited Series and Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series for Escape at Dannemora in 2019.
• Two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series for Severance in 2024.
• A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2008.

Controversy

Ben Stiller has not been involved in any major scandals or controversies, except for some minor ones, such as:

• His feud with Joan Rivers, who criticized his parents and his comedy style and called him “a lucky guy who made it on his own” in a sarcastic tone. Stiller said that he respected Rivers but did not find her funny and was proud of his parents and their legacy.
• His lawsuit against Greg Glienna, the original writer of Meet the Parents, claimed that Stiller and the producers stole his idea and screenplay and did not give him proper credit or compensation. The case was settled out of court in 2006, with Glienna receiving an undisclosed amount of money and a co-writer credit.
• His parody of Tom Cruise on the MTV Movie Awards in 2000, where he impersonated Cruise’s character from Mission: Impossible 2 and performed a series of stunts and explosions. Cruise was reportedly not amused by the spoof and did not speak to Stiller for a while. They later reconciled, and Cruise even appeared in Stiller’s film Tropic Thunder, in which he played a foul-mouthed and balding movie producer.

Social Media

• Instagram handle: @benstiller
• Twitter handle: @RedHourBen

Filmography

• Reality Bites – Director, actor
• The Cable Guy – Director, actor
• There’s Something About Mary – Actor
• Zoolander – Director, writer, producer, actor
• The Royal Tenenbaums – Actor
• Meet the Parents – Actor
• Meet the Fockers – Actor
• Madagascar – Voice actor
• Night at the Museum – Actor
• Tropic Thunder – Director, writer, producer, actor
• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty – Director, producer, actor
• Escape at Dannemora – Director, executive producer
• The Meyerowitz Stories – Actor

Net Worth

Ben Stiller has an estimated net worth of $200 million. He has earned his fortune from his successful film and television career as an actor and a director.

He has also made money from his production company, Red Hour Films, which he founded in 1999 with his partner Stuart Cornfeld.