Ben Stein (Benjamin Jeremy Stein) is an American writer, actor and lawyer, best known as an Emmy Award-winning game show host. After graduating with a law degree, he began his career as an economist at the Department of Commerce, in Washington, D.C. Then he became a trial lawyer at the Federal Trade Commission and also served as a professor at the American University. His teaching profession brought him to the University of California where he taught political and civil rights under the Constitution. Later with the help of his editorials, he became a speechwriter and lawyer for President Richard Nixon and President Gerald Ford. Eventually he became a Hollywood consultant, helping liberal writers portray a conservative family on television, and then moved on to act in commercials and movies. He excelled at playing bland and unemotional characters, and was subsequently typecast into many roles, mainly as a nerd. His deadpan monotone deliveries were a new and fresh contrast to the typical overly excited personalities in commercials. An American attorney, former game show host, actor, former political speechwriter, law professor, economist, author, and columnist, he is widely considered as the funniest Republican in Hollywood.