Ben Stiller Biography

Name: Ben Stiller

Born: 30 November 1965 (Age: 46)

Where: New York City, New York, USA

Height: 5'8"

Awards: Won 1 Emmy

Occupation: Actor, comedian, director, producer, screenwriter

Born in New York City on November 30, 1965, Stiller began to shoot his own comic films from the age of ten. After high-school graduation, Stiller attended UCLA and landed bit parts in several features, notably the Steven Spielberg-directed, Tom Stoppard and Menno Meyjes-scripted, late 1987 opus Empire of the Sun.

Meanwhile, Stiller continued to turn out comedy shorts, including the 30-minute Elvis Stories (1989), a spoof of obsessive Elvis fans featuring an already-established John Cusack. One of Stiller's shorts, a Tom Cruise parody called The Hustler of Money, won him a spot as a writer and player on Saturday Night Live in 1989. His stint on the show was short-lived, but led to his own eponymous series, The Ben Stiller Show, first on MTV (1990) and later on Fox (1992-1993). The program failed to draw a substantial audience, and folded within a couple of months on each network, but Stiller netted an Emmy for comedy writing in 1993.

In 1996, Stiller enjoyed a solid art-house success with "Flirting with Disaster," playing a married man who goes on a road trip with a leggy psychology student (Tea Leoni) in order to meet his biological parents (Alan Alda and Lily Tomlin). He brought manic energy to his portrayal of a conceptual artist with designs on a New York psychotherapist (Sarah Jessica Parker) in the unsuccessful romantic comedy "If Lucy Fell" (1996), which he followed with a brief uncredited turn as a smarmy nursing home operator in "Happy Gilmore" (1996). But Stiller had his breakout year in 1998 with several strong performances, beginning with an understated turn as the partner of a reclusive investigator (Bill Pullman) in "Zero Effect" (1998).

After cameo appearances in "Orange County" (2002) and "Run Ronnie Run" (2002), Stiller co-starred with Drew Barrymore in the flop "The Duplex" (2003), a black comedy directed about Danny De Vito about the lengths one will go to in order to rent the perfect apartment in New York City. He rebounded again with mildly amusing and modest hit, "Along Came Polly" (2004). Turning to animation, Stiller then lent his distinctive voice to "Madagascar" (2005), Disney's animated adventure about four zoo animals who escape and inadvertently find themselves in Africa, where the city slickers struggle to survive in the wild. His next project was "A Night at the Museum" (2006), a family comedy about a night security guard in the Museum of Natural History who unwittingly unleashes a curse that brings to life the bugs and animals on display. Following that box office success, Stiller teamed up again with the Farrelly Brothers for "The Heartbreak Kid" (2007). The following year, Stiller impressed with his turn as a neurotic 40-year-old who returns home after years of stagnancy in the indie dramedy, "Greenburg" (2010).