As a child, he put on small productions and even made short films with his Super 8 camera. In 1983 he entered film school at UCLA but soon grew tired of the college scene and flew back to the Big Apple after only nine months on campus.

After looking for somewhere to put his talent to use, Ben landed a role in an acclaimed Broadway play that featured John Mahoney, now seen on the hit show Frasier. A short film shot by Stiller parodying the Scorsese film The Color of Money, with Mahoney as the Paul Newman character and Stiller as Tom Cruise, was a  hit with the cast and Ben was handed to a producer on Saturday Night Live.

Ben was given the opportunity to be a member of the cast as a result and although it only lasted one season, it put him into a national spotlight. Now seen as a master of sketch comedy, Ben was asked  by MTV to produce and star in a variety show. The result was The Ben Stiller Show. Unfortunatly, it only lasted for 13 episodes.

Ben then decides to see what the film industry could do for him. He then acted and directed in 1994's Reality Bites, in which he portrayed a shameless yuppie working for an obnoxious MTV-like network. The movie, starring Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke, did well enough at the box office to turn heads in Hollywood.

So now,our dear Ben is one of Hollywoods leading funnymen and still going strong. Bravo, Ben, bravo.

• His longtime girlfriend was Jeanne Tripplehorn.
• He is a major fan of Tom Cruise and has impersonated Tom for many years. He even portrayed Tom Cruise's fictious crazed stunt double Tom Crooze on The 2000 MTV Movie Awards on a segment called Mission: Improbable. This segment is included on the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 (2000) DVD. Tom and Ben have been friends ever since 1996.
• He appeared in Who Wants to Be A Millionaire on May 9, 2001 and walked away with $32,000 for his charity. He phoned his mother actress Anne Meara for help, but lost on the question.
• He often casts/co-stars with Janeane Garofalo.
• Ben and his wife Christine Taylor (I), have both guest starred on the TV-show FRIENDS (1994), though not in the same episode.
• Somehow this isn't quite what we pictured when we heard Ben Stiller was working on a sequel to Meet the Parents
• Ben Stiller is shocked he has survived his first year of marriage to blonde beauty Christine Taylor.
• Hollywood star Ben Stiller enjoys playing the funnyman, but it does not come easily - he is also a manic depressive.
• (Annie Hall [1977]) Ben Stiller comments how he likes the scene when Alvy has to meet Annie's family in AFI's 100 Years, 100 Movies (1998) and how it relates to him personally because he always was very apprehensive meeting his girlfriends parents. Ben Stiller starred in MEET THE PARENTS (2000) which revolved around that very idea.
• Before offering a dinner blessing in MEET THE PARENTS (2000), he says, ... it's not like I'm a rabbi or anything. In his previous movie, KEEPING THE FAITH (2000), he plays a rabbi.
• He and Owen Wilson wrote David Bowie's scene as judge of the walk-off into the script without knowing for sure whether he would agree to it (ZOOLANDER-2001).
• He had several family members in ZOOLANDER: His wife Christiane Taylor (I) (Matila), Father Jerry (Maury Ballstein), Mother Anne Meara (protestor who hits Mugatu with an egg) and his brother-in-law Mitch Winston (Director of the Informertial)