2024-03-28

ben stiller
Liyang Chen / Wikicommons
  • Faith: Judaism
  • Career: Actor
  • Birthday:  November 30, 1965

Ben Stiller is a filmmaker, actor, and comedian. He’s the son of comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. He was a member of a group of comedic actors known as the Frat Pack. His movies have grossed over $2.6 billion in Canada and the United States, with an average of $79 million per film. Throughout his career, he’s received various honors and awards, including an Emmy Award, a Directors Guild of America Award, a Britannia Award and a Teen Choice Award.

While starting his acting career, Stiller wrote several mockumentaries and was offered various sketch comedy series titled “The Ben Stiller Show,” which he produced and hosted for its 13-episode run. The series ran on MTV from 1990 to 1992, earning him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Program. He then appeared on shows like “Friends,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Arrested Development,” and “Extras,” the latter of which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series nomination.

Having previously acted in TV, he started acting in movies. He made his directorial debut with “Reality Bites” and continued directing films and often starring in them, such as “The Cable Guy,” “Zoolander,” “Tropic Thunder,” and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” During this time, he also starred in a string of successful studio comedies, including “There’s Something About Mary,” “Along Came Polly,” “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story,” “Starsky & Hutch,” and “Tower Heist.” Still is also widely known for multiple franchise films like “Meet the Parents” films, the “Madagascar” franchise, and the first three “Night at the Museum” films. His performances in independent movies like “Flirting with Disaster,” “The Royal Tenenbaums,” and “Greenberg.”

Since the mid-2010s, Stiller has mainly worked as a TV showrunner. In 2018, he directed the Showtime limited series “Escape at Dannemora,” earning himself a Directors Guild of America Award and two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Limited Series and Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series. In 2022, Stiller served as a director and executive producer on the AppleTV+ series “Severance,” earning two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series. Stiller was born in 1965 in New York City and raised on the Upper West Side. His parents frequently took him on the sets of their appearances, including “The Mike Douglas Show” when he was six. He considered his childhood unusual, saying, “In some ways, it was a show-business upbringing: a lot of traveling, a lot of late nights, not what you’d call traditional.

What religion is Ben Stiller?

Ben Stiller identifies as Jewish. His father, actor and comedian Jerry Stiller, was from a Jewish family that emigrated from Poland. His mother, who was from an Irish Catholic background, converted to Reform Judaism after marrying his father. While they were never a very religious family, they celebrated both Christmas and Hanukkah, and Stiller had a Bar Mitzvah.


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