Editing Ben Stiller (section)

===Early work===
When he was approximately 15, Stiller obtained a small part with one line on the television soap opera ''[[Guiding Light]]'', although in an interview he characterized his performance as poor.<ref>{{cite episode|title=Something Something Japanese|series=[[Conan (talk show)|Conan]]|airdate=July 26, 2012|season=2|number=121|network=[[TBS (U.S. TV channel)|TBS]]}}</ref> He was later cast in a role in the 1986 Broadway revival of [[John Guare]]'s ''[[The House of Blue Leaves]]'', alongside [[John Mahoney]]; the production would garner four [[Tony Award]]s.<ref name="Tis"/>

During its run, Stiller produced a satirical [[mockumentary]] whose principal was fellow actor Mahoney. Stiller's comedic work was well received by the cast and crew of the play, and he followed up with a 10-minute short titled ''The Hustler of Money'', a parody of the [[Martin Scorsese]] film ''[[The Color of Money]]''. The film featured him in a send-up of [[Tom Cruise]]'s character and Mahoney in the [[Paul Newman]] role, only this time as a [[bowling]] hustler instead of a [[Hustling|pool shark]]. The short got the attention of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'', which aired it in 1987 and two years later offered Stiller a spot as a writer.<ref name="Tis" /> In the meantime, he had a bit role in [[Steven Spielberg]]'s ''[[Empire of the Sun (film)|Empire of the Sun]]''.<ref name="EmpireHorses">{{cite magazine|last=Svetkey|first=Benjamin|title=Our Son the Comedian|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|url=https://ew.com/article/1992/10/16/funny-man-ben-stiller/|date=October 16, 1992|access-date=January 9, 2010|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100113025333/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20053133,00.html|archive-date=January 13, 2010|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1989 Stiller wrote for and appeared on ''Saturday Night Live'' as a featured performer. However, since the show did not want him to make more short films, he left after four episodes.<ref name="Tis"/> He then put together ''Elvis Stories'', a short film about a fictitious tabloid focused on recent sightings of [[Elvis Presley]].<ref name="ElvisStories">{{cite news|last=Wickstrom|first=Andy|title=The King Lives in 'Elvis Stories'|work=[[Boca Raton News]]|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=X8UPAAAAIBAJ&pg=5430,1125901&dq=ben+stiller+elvis+stories|date=January 5, 1990|access-date=January 9, 2010}}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The film starred friends and co-stars [[John Cusack]], [[Jeremy Piven]], [[Mike Myers (actor)|Mike Myers]], [[Andy Dick]], and Jeff Kahn.<ref name="ElvisStories"/> The film was considered a success, and led him to develop the short film ''Going Back to Brooklyn'' for [[MTV]]; it was a music video starring comedian [[Colin Quinn]] that parodied [[LL Cool J]]'s recent hit "[[Going Back to Cali (LL Cool J song)|Going Back to Cali]]".<ref name="BackBrooklyn">{{cite news|title=Stiller gets serious|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=WT&p_theme=wt&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EED25DFF4A38F12&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D|url-access=registration |date=September 28, 2001|access-date=January 9, 2010}}</ref>