Jerry Stahl has written ten books, including the bestselling memoir Permanent Midnight, made into a movie with Ben Stiller; the essay collection OG Dad; and the novels Pain Killers; I, Fatty; Perv; Plainclothes Naked; Happy Mutant Baby Pills; and Bad Sex on Speed. A Pushcart Prize–winning author, Stahl’s work has appeared in Esquire, Vice, the Believer, Tin House, Los Angeles Review of Books, and the New York Times, among other places. He has written extensively for film and television, including

HBO’s Hemingway & Gellhorn, which earned a Writers Guild Award nomination; Bad Boys II; and the cult classic Dr. Caligari; series credits include Maron, CSI, and Escape at Dannemora, for which he received an Emmy nomination. Stahl’s writing has been widely translated, and he has taught with the InsideOUT Writers program for incarcerated youth, edited The Heroin Chronicles for Akashic Books, and participated in the documentary series, San Quentin Film School. He has two daughters, and lives with artist Zoe Hansen.

Ben Stiller is one of Hollywood’s most successful and acclaimed multihyphenates. As an actor, director, writer, and producer, Stiller’s global box office stands at nearly $3 billion, making him one of the highest-grossing stars of all time; and also one of the most versatile, effortlessly moving between major franchises such as Meet the Parents and Night at the Museum, the animated Madagascar films, critically-acclaimed arthouse hits; The Royal Tenenbaums, Meyerowitz Stories and While We’re Young, his legendary sketch television series The Ben Stiller Show, and the Oscar-nominated Tropic Thunder, which he starred in, directed, co-wrote, and produced, to massive acclaim under his production company, Red Hour.

His latest project as a director and executive producer is the critically-acclaimed Apple TV+ workplace thriller, Severance, which debuted globally on February 18, 2022. This new series, written by Dan Erikson, is set at Lumon Industries, a company whose employees have undergone a medical procedure which surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. The stellar cast is led by Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, Zach Cherry, Britt Lower, Tramell Tillman, Jen Tullock, Dichen Lachman, and Michael Chernus. It was recently announced that the hit series will be returning for a second season.

Stiller’s extensive slate of upcoming projects includes London (attached to direct and produce) based on a short story by Jo Nesbo and set to star Oscar Isaac, now in development with screenwriter Eric Roth attached. He will further produce the untitled sci-fi comedy/drama follow-up from Palm Springs collaborators Andy Samberg and screenwriter Andy Siara, now in development; as well as produce an untitled biopic of New York Knicks legend Bernard King alongside Protege Pictures’ Rodney Henry and Ted Field of Radar.

Stiller’s television projects include CW’s drama series, In The Dark, now in its third season, which he executive produces. Additional announced projects include Home for NBC, based on the British comedy series about an American couple who take in a Syrian refugee, which he will direct and executive produce; The Sidelines, a single-camera half-hour comedy that will follow a newly separated mother who decides to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a professional cheerleader, which he will executive produce. He will also reteam with Arquette yet again for Apple TV+’s half-hour comedy, High Desert, which Stiller will executive produce, with Arquette starring and executive producing.

In 2019 he won a DGA Award for directing all seven parts of Escape at Dannemora, a limited series for Showtime which he also produced, starring Benicio del Toro, Paul Dano, and Patricia Arquette. Based on the infamous 2015 true crime story, Escape at Dannemora boldly traces the prison break and subsequent manhunt for two convicted killers who escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, NY. This riveting recounting of actual events, shot on location in upstate New York, garnered numerous accolades, including 12 Primetime Emmy Award nominations including ‘Outstanding Limited Series’ and ‘Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special’ for Stiller’s producing and direction, respectively. He was also nominated for a 2019 Producer’s Guild Awards for ‘David L. Wolper Award for Limited Series Television’. The show also garnered 5 Critics Choice Awards nominations, 2 Golden Globe Awards nominations, and Golden Globe and SAG Award wins for Arquette.

As a director, Stiller’s body of work includes the critically-acclaimed hit comedy Tropic Thunder, which won the Broadcast Film Critics’ Award for ’Best Comedy’ and the Hollywood Film Festival Award for ’Comedy of the Year’, in addition to Academy Award, Golden Globe, SAG, and BAFTA nominations for Robert Downey Jr.’s inspired performance. His other feature directorial credits include the cult comedy Zoolander and its sequel, in which he also starred; the iconic indie Reality Bites starring Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke; the dark comedy The Cable Guy starring Jim Carrey; and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which was named one of the ’Top 10 Films of 2013’ by the National Board of Review.

Tropic Thunder, the Zoolander films, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty—as well as Escape at Dannemora—were all produced by Stiller at Red Hour, the production company he launched in 2011, producing a wide range of film and television projects in collaboration with major studios and networks including Netflix, Disney, Apple, Amazon, NBC and YouTube, to name a few. As a vanguard in the industry, Stiller founded Red Hour in 2001 as an incubator for emerging writers and filmmakers, with an emphasis on embracing new platforms. His recent credits under the Red Hour banner include: Netflix coming-of-age comedy Alex Strangelove; the Emmy-nominated digital series Burning Love; the R-rated Netflix hit movie The Package; the hit 20th Century Fox release Why Him? starring Brian Cranston and James Franco; The Polka King for Netflix, starring Jack Black; IFC’s The Birthday Boys; Comedy Central’s The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail, Big Time in Hollywood, FL and Another Period; plus its growing film catalog, including the BAFTA-nominated Submarine and worldwide box office hits Blades of Glory, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story and Starsky & Hutch, among others. Upcoming film projects include: independent romantic comedy Plus One, directed by Andrew Rhymer and Jeff Chan and financed by Studio 71; ensemble comedy Friendsgiving, written and directed by Nicol Paone and starring Malin Akerman, Kat Dennings, Jane Seymour and Chelsea Peretti; and punk rock indie comedy Dinner in America, written and directed by Adam Rehmeier.

Stiller’s breakthrough came in the early 90s with the sketch comedy program The Ben Stiller Show, which he directed, produced, starred in, and wrote, eventually winning an Emmy Award for ’Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program’. The show is credited with launching the careers of some of the most dynamic comedians of Stiller’s generation, including Judd Apatow, David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, and Bob Odenkirk.

Since then, Stiller has amassed one of the most successful acting careers on record, from the aforementioned movie franchises Night at the Museum, Meet the Parents, and Madagascar; to modern classics like Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums, David O. Russell’s Flirting with Disaster, The Farrelly Brothers’ There’s Something About Mary, and Neil LaBute’s Your Friends & Neighbors; plus Tower Heist, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Permanent Midnight, and Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun, among countless others.

In 2017, Stiller’s gifts as a remarkable actor were on full display in two critically-acclaimed independent features: Mike White’s Brad’s Status; and Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), in which Stiller starred opposite Adam Sandler, Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. The latter marked his third collaboration with Baumbach following While We’re Young opposite Naomi Watts; and Greenberg, opposite Greta Gerwig, for which Stiller received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for ’Best Male Lead’.
Stiller’s memorable television appearances include multi-episode stints on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm and FOX’s Arrested Development; the late Garry Shandling’s seminal The Larry Sanders Show; and Ricky Gervais’ Extras, for which Stiller received an Emmy Award nomination for ’Best Guest Actor in a Comedy Series’.

Also an accomplished stage actor, Stiller made his Broadway debut in 1986 in Lincoln Center Theater’s production of John Guare’s The House of Blue Leaves—opposite John Mahoney, Swoosie Kurtz, and Stockard Channing—in an acclaimed production that garnered four Tony Awards. In a unique occurrence, Stiller starred in the 2011 Broadway revival of the same play, this time assuming the role made famous by Mahoney, and playing opposite Edie Falco and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

For his remarkable career—both onscreen and behind the camera—Stiller received BAFTA’s Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy in 2011; and an American Cinematheque Tribute in 2012 which cited him as a “comedy icon whose wide-ranging talents include acting, directing, writing and producing.”

Over the last decade, Stiller has also focused on another one of his great passions: philanthropic and humanitarian work. Inspired by a visit to Haiti in 2009 alongside the organization Save the Children, Stiller founded The Stiller Foundation, a non-profit that—amongst other charitable activities—provides funds, resources and support in the rebuilding of schools and educational programs in Haiti. The foundation has also donated considerably to charities and organizations around the world, including Bicycles for Humanity, Balfour Education Center, Waipa Foundation, Haiti Cultural Recovery Project, Students Rebuild, Artists for Haiti, Architecture for Humanity, and The Bezos Family Foundation, among countless others.

Stiller has also personally been involved with and supported innumerable charities and foundations over the course of his career, including Project ALS and Artists for Peace and Justice, to name just a few. Over the last several years, he has partnered with the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, to meet with and learn from refugees around the world, first in Berlin in 2016; Jordan in 2017, Guatemala in 2018, and most recently, Beirut, Lebanon where he was enormously affected by refugees who recounted stories of survival and the humanitarian efforts that quite literally saved their lives.

For his considerable philanthropic work amid an illustrious career, Stiller was recognized in 2010 by Time Magazine as one of the TIME 100, a list of the world’s most influential people.