Actor and director Ben Stiller has created some of the most hilarious films of his time, including There’s Something About Mary, Zoolander, and Meet the Parents. Born to comedians Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, he grew up in Brooklyn. Early in his career, he wrote for Saturday Night Live and created The Ben Stiller Show, a short-lived but influential sketch comedy show. After directing and starring in several films, Stiller gained widespread popularity with the outrageous 1998 comedy There’s Something About Mary. Since then, he has headlined in Zoolander and appeared in hit films like Meet the Parents and Night at the Museum. Read more about his life and career at brooklynski.info.
Early Career
Benjamin Edward Meara Stiller was born on November 30, 1965, in Brooklyn, New York. He was the second child in his family. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) but dropped out in 1984 after just nine months. In 1985, he made his Broadway debut in a revival of The House of Blue Leaves.
Two years later, Stiller made his film debut in Fresh Horses, co-starring with the aging Molly Ringwald and Andrew McCarthy. The movie was a disaster at the box office, but Stiller remained undeterred. His next break came in 1989 when he joined the Saturday Night Live (SNL) writing team. However, he left after just five weeks, frustrated by creative limitations, and moved to Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles, Stiller developed The Ben Stiller Show, a half-hour sketch comedy series that originally aired on MTV before FOX picked it up. The show became a launchpad for up-and-coming comedians like Bob Odenkirk, Andy Dick, and Janeane Garofalo. Though critically acclaimed, The Ben Stiller Show was canceled after just 12 episodes. However, Stiller and his co-writers won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1993 for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program.
Stiller’s next project was directing and starring in Reality Bites (1994), a film that explored the struggles of recent college graduates. Co-starring Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, and Garofalo, the film became an anthem for Generation X, despite receiving mixed reviews. Stiller then began work on The Cable Guy, but creative differences over the budget led him to walk away from the project six weeks into production.
“There’s Something About Mary”
Undeterred, Stiller returned to the big screen in the David O. Russell comedy Flirting with Disaster (1996), in which he played a young father searching for his biological parents. He then directed and starred in The Cable Guy alongside Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick. However, it was his role in the outrageous 1998 comedy There’s Something About Mary, co-starring Cameron Diaz and Matt Dillon, that catapulted him to stardom.
In 2000, Stiller starred in Keeping the Faith alongside Jenna Elfman and Edward Norton and teamed up with Hollywood veterans Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner for the comedy Meet the Parents. The film was a massive success and led to two sequels: Meet the Fockers (2004) and Little Fockers (2010). In 2004, Stiller collaborated with Owen Wilson for a modern take on the classic TV series Starsky & Hutch and played opposite Vince Vaughn in the sports comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. That same year, he starred alongside Jennifer Aniston in the romantic comedy Along Came Polly.
In 2006, Stiller brought his signature neurotic humor to a younger audience with Night at the Museum, a fantasy-comedy that became a major box office hit. This led to two sequels: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009) and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014).
Overcoming Cancer
In May 2000, Stiller married actress Christine Taylor, best known for playing Marcia Brady in The Brady Bunch Movie. The couple starred together in Zoolander (2001), Dodgeball, and Tropic Thunder. They had two children before announcing their separation in 2017. However, they continued to make public appearances together, including attending the 2019 Emmy Awards side by side.
In October 2016, Stiller revealed on The Howard Stern Show that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer two years earlier. The disease was successfully treated thanks to early detection, and Stiller credited Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) testing for saving his life. He openly discussed his diagnosis to raise awareness about early screening, emphasizing that PSA tests had been crucial in catching the disease in its early stages. Despite being initially shocked and scared by the diagnosis, Stiller emerged cancer-free and became an advocate for men’s health awareness.