Ben Stiller

Ben Stiller is clear: “Who knows what would have happened if my parents were plumbers?” But they’re not, Jerry Stiller and Anne MearaThey are two comic actors who are still active in the genre that has made their son famous. Ben was born on November 30, 1965 in New York, where he lived among the stars. Unlike other parents in the union, the Stillers did not want to remove their two children, Amy and Ben, from the celluloid environment. At the age of 10, Ben received a Super-8 camera from his father which he immediately began using to shoot homemade shorts. After finishing college he enrolled at UCLA in theater, film and television. In New York he worked at the Actors’ Studio, and made his stage debut in 1986 with ‘The House of Blue Leaves’. Among his youthful works are several parodies of successful movies, so it is not surprising that he convinced two co-stars to make a short caricaturing The Color of Money.. This work had a certain impact and helped him to participate in the television program Saturday Night Live, which in turn gave him the creation of his own television show, The Ben Stiller Show. Ben was not as successful as expected and the show went off the air twelve weeks after it started, which didn’t stop him from winning an Emmy.

After the theater and television, Stiller made the leap to the cinema. He made his debut in 1987 as a secondary in the comedy Chase very, very hot , where he coincided with his father. In that same year, Steven Spielberg chose him as a supporting role for the war drama Empire of the Sun , an anecdotal genre in his career, as he would never repeat it. In fact, the first years in the cinema were quite exceptional as far as genres are concerned. He was a supporting role in the drama Hot Boys (1988) and the crime action film In His Own Law (1989). That same year he tried comedy again in That’s Adequate., where he coincided with his parents. And it seems that the Stillers adhere to a saying that could read “the family that works together, stays together”, since they have shared fatigues on several occasions. Without going any further, Ben had his sister for his debut as a film director and screenwriter in the short film Elvis Stories (1989). Without forgetting that in the parody of the horror genre Highway to Hell (1992), all four appear.

Comedy began to be a regular on his resume, although he dropped it for his feature directorial debut. Bites of Reality (1994) is a drama starring Ethan Hawke and Winona Ryder about Generation X, made up of young people from the 90s. Stiller appeared as a supporting role and received good reviews, making the title something close to a movie. worship for that generation. From this moment on, Stiller focuses exclusively on comedies, whether with romantic overtones If you don’t get married I’ll kill myself (1996), More than friends (2000), And then she came (2004), from thriller Zero effect (1998 ), dramatic Friends & neighbors  (1998), or sports Cuestión de pelotas (2004). He continued to be linked to directing, and in 1996 he brought Jim Carrey , another icon of contemporary comedy, to the brink of a nervous breakdown, in A Madman at Home . His big break came with There’s Something About Mary (1998), a hit comedy by the Farrelly brothers that brought him international fame. His consolidation as one of the kings of laughter was given by Her Parents (2000), about political families, and its sequel, His Parents (2004), in which Stiller and Robert De Niro composed a comic relationship son-in-law.

The dawn of 2000 was one of professional and personal success, as Stiller met actress Christine Taylor at a test , whom he married. The couple have two children and a career together, as Stiller chose her to star in his satire on the world of fashion Zoolander (2001). For the occasion, Stiller featured other popular comic faces, Will Ferrell and Owen Wilson . Stiller and Wilson share a great friendship, so they met again in The Tenenbaums (2001) and Starsky & Hutch (2004). He has recently seen his faces with two usual comic actors, Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney , in the family comedyNight at the museum (2006). The success achieved, consolidates Stiller’s privileged position within modern comedy. But his work does not stop; in October he will hit the Spanish billboards The Heartbreak Kid , a new film with the Farrelly brothers. In addition, as a director he is immersed in the pre-production of Tropic Thunder , a comedy with notes of war in which he will co-star with Jack Black. A successful director, producer and screenwriter with clear ideas: “I don’t rest on my laurels, because they are like cactuses for me”, comments the actor. Not surprisingly, he has a reputation for being a bit obsessive. “I try not to be, but what I also don’t understand is how if you’re working on something, you don’t stick with it until it’s as good as you can make it.” Those who want a recipe for success take note.