Ben Stiller

An accomplished, talented Hollywood comedic actor also writer and director who has shown true dedication to the cinematic world through his numerous well-known works, Ben Stiller sure has nicely carved his way to become one of the most substantial figures in the genre. Born Benjamin Stiller on November 30, 1965 in New York City to veteran comedic performers Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, Ben, along with his sister Amy, was never kept away from the Hollywood lifestyle as he grew up in Manhattan and so, it really did not take a long time for him to become attracted to entertainment industry. Not only flourished an interest in acting but also filmmaking as well, the boy eagerly spent his early life shooting films on his Super 8 camera while nurturing his desire to act through one-time appearance on “The Mike Douglas Show” in 1972 and his mother's TV series of “Kate McShane” three years later. This abundant fondness subsequently prompted him to take film studies at UCLA following his graduation from The Calhoun School, New York in 1983, but since the urge to pursue an acting career became too hard to resist, he thus decided to quit in his ninth month and without hesitation, began setting out his journey in show business shortly thereafter.

Relocated back to New York City in his effort to hone his craft at the famed Actors' Studio also to search for proper acting jobs, Ben finally could land his professional debut in the Broadway revival of John Guare's “The House of Blue Leaves” produced by Lincoln Center Theater in 1986. Still maintaining his love for filming during the play's run up to 1987, he then took time to make a 10-minute short spoof of Martin Scorsese's 1986 effort, “The Color of Money”, titled "The Hustler of Money" alongside fellow “Blue Leaves” performer, John Mahoney. Much to his surprise, the feature delightfully made its way to attract “Saturday Night Live” creator, Lorne Michaels, who aired it in 1987, directing him to gain spot as the program's featured player and apprentice writer in the 1988-1989 season. This joyously was followed by an offer from MTV to have his own comedy show, “The Ben Stiller Show” (1990), which had its spin-off on Fox in 1992 with the same name but different cast apart from the funnyman himself. The latter one unfortunately was cancelled in 1993 after only 12 episodes, but it ironically gave Ben his first honor later that year, a share of Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing in a Variety or Music Program.

Afterwards seen in mediocre movies for the next few years besides stepped behind the screen to direct “Reality Bites” (1994) and “The Cable Guy” (1996), it was not until the guy starred opposite Cameron Diaz in the Farrelly brothers' lowbrow comedy of “There's Something About Mary” (1998) that he eventually strived high to strike hard the big screen. Also teamed up with the likes of Lee Evans and Matt Dillon, he successfully helped the flick to garner total gross of over 369 million U.S dollar around the world while scored 4 MTV Movie Award nominations which he won one in the Best Fight category by 1999. The great outcome certainly propelled Ben right away to the vast prominence as a result, consequently paved his path in Hollywood to earn more propitious roles upon entering the turn of the third millennium, like those in the box-office hits of “Meet the Parents” (2000), “Zoolander” (2001), plus “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001). The former picture even won him an MTV Movie Award in the category of Best Comedic Performance the year the two latter movies came up on theatres, bringing the actor to then face larger exposure under the spotlight for sure.

Smoothly ran his film career, Ben continued to generate commercial success through his subsequent silver screen productions which all were released in 2004 and collected more than $88 million in the domestic income, namely “Along Came Polly”, “Starsky & Hutch”, “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story”, and “Meet the Fockers.” Followed it up with a voice acting stint in DreamWorks' mega-hit animation feature of “Madagascar” (2005) then recurring appearances in Fox's acclaimed sitcom, “Arrested Development”, by 2005 and 2006, the star satisfyingly kept moving on rather busily as a series of other film projects have already been added to his resume. These included “Night at the Museum”, “The Mirror”, plus “Seven Day Itch” slated for the 2006 releases, “Used Guys” and “The Persuaders” for that in 2007, also “Ghostbusters in Hell” and “Madagascar 2” by 2008. Concerning his love life, Ben has been known to date several actresses, notably Jeanne Tripplehorn whom he had an on/off relationship with for some years, before finally married Christine Taylor on May 13, 2000 in Kauai, Hawaii to later happily embrace their daughter Ella Olivia on April 10, 2002 and son Quinlin Dempsey by July 10, 2005.