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Ben Stiller lands a starring role on TV for first time in more than 30 years with HBO's The Band
The Band stars Stiller as a Simon Cowell parody trying to restore his career by finding a new hit boy band.
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Ben Stiller’s career has been almost exclusive to the big screen for more than 30 years. With classic hits like Night at the Museum, Dodgeball, and There’s Something About Mary scattered about his IMDB page, Stiller hasn’t had to dip his toe into television since the early 90s. However, the Severance director and producer is changing that with a new comedy series for HBO – all about forming a band.
The last time Ben Stiller had a starring role on a TV series was the appropriately titled The Ben Stiller Show for MTV and Fox. Since then, he’s only shown up on TV in small but memorable roles like in Arrested Development or behind the camera like in Severance. The Band, about a music mogul who has to create a new hit pop group to save his career.
In The Band, Ben Stiller is playing Oscar, a parody of Simon Cowell who is beset by scandal and needs a new hit act to distract everyone. He will also be executive producing the series. Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers, co-creators of the comedy Search Party, are the showrunners while Stiller’s production company, Red Hour Films, is signed on to co-studio the project with HBO.
No further plot or casting details have been announced, but Ben Stiller’s return to television seems in line with his recent comments about the risk-averse nature of Hollywood since it was impacted by Covid and strikes. A shift toward TV, which could give him more freedom to do more creative things, feels like the logical move for the actor for the next stage of his career.
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