Ben Stiller has carved out a lasting legacy as one of comedy’s most enduring actors—from his early breakout on The Ben Stiller Show to blockbuster hits like Zoolander and Meet the Parents. At 59, and now behind the scenes as a director and producer, he has remained a beloved figure in Hollywood. Stiller has been married to actress Christine Taylor since 2000, and together they’re navigating parenthood with their two children, daughter Ella and son Quinlin.
At the 25th Anniversary Gala for Project ALS in New York in October 2023, he didn’t just walk the red carpet—he shone the spotlight on his wife. “Christine’s on the board, so she does the real work for a lot of years,” he told Page Six. “I’m a trophy husband. I’m riding her coattails, for sure. She has done so much and she’s been committed for so long.”
As a dad, Ben has often reflected on how his acting career influenced his parenting — especially when his kids were younger. In a 2008 interview with Chicago Parent, he explained, “I think every parent has to sort of be an actor with their kids when they’re doing that. You just sort of have to commit fully, and you don’t care, because you know the audience, and you want them to be happy. Kids love to be told stories, my son especially. So if you can make them laugh, or get them into that mode where they’re into it, then yeah, you use whatever abilities you have. And that’s fun.”
But in his candid new documentary, Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, which premiered at the New York Film Festival and launches on Apple TV+ on October 24, Stiller opened up about the ways he wasn’t a perfect parent. Reflecting on his upbringing and how it shaped his own parenting, he shared at the premiere, “They were very clear with me about what I got wrong.” In one emotional moment, he admitted that cutting Ella from his 2013 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was “probably the worst decision I ever made in my life.”
Find out more about both of Ben and Christine’s kids here.
Ella Olivia Stiller
Ben and Christine welcomed their daughter Ella in April 2002. The Night At The Museum star and his daughter made headlines when she was her dad’s date to the 2022 Emmy Awards. She stunned in a plunging black dress as she attended the award show with her dad. It probably won’t be the last award show she attends with her dad, as she’s decided to follow in her dad’s footsteps and become an actress.
Ella’s Instagram bio reveals that she’s a student at the prestigious Julliard Drama School. She’s also gotten to act in a few projects alongside her dad. She made her movie debut with a small voice acting part in the 2010 animated movie Megamind. She’s also appeared in Night At The Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014) and Hubie Halloween (2020), per IMDb. With her parents being actors as well as her grandparents, it’s no surprise that she wants to also work in movies. The Tropic Thunder star said he was happy for his daughter in a 2019 interview on Ellen. “She loves [acting], and she’s very passionate about it, and she knows what she wants to do,” he said. “I just want to kind of support her in it in any way I can.”
Aside from acting, Ben also revealed that he taught Ella to drive, but she taught him about Taylor Swift during their driving lessons, in an August 2022 interview on The Late Show. “What really helped her was if we just played her favorite artist on the iPhone, and we just played Taylor Swift,” he said. “I was a fan, but I think now I’m a total Swiftie.”
Quinlin Dempsey Stiller
Three years after Ella, Ben and Christine had a son Quinlin in July 2005. It’s not clear if Quinlin will take the same path as his sister into the entertainment business, but he has dabbled in a bit of acting, having lent his voice to Madagascar 2 and Megamind, as a kid. More recently, he appeared in the 2021 rom-com Locked Down, per IMDb. Aside from acting, Quinlin has a love for basketball, as Ben revealed in the Ellen interview, mentioned above. It was revealed that his son had a knee injury from playing basketball in a February 2022 profile on Ben in Esquire.
While Quinlin rarely makes public appearances, he did tag-along with his mom and dad at the 25th Project ALS gala in October 2023.
