Get to Know ‘Cupertino’s Ella Stiller — & How Her Famous Parents Reacted to TV Role

CBS’s new legal dramedy from Robert and Michelle King features a Hollywood legacy in its ensemble cast: Ella Stiller, daughter of Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor, stars alongside Mike Colter and Rachel Keller as their feisty legal assistant, Chrisy Palladino, who joins their nascent firm with a Rolodex of family members in very handy blue-collar jobs.

Both of Stiller’s folks are known for their decades of standout comedy films, but the young actress is charting her own path with Cupertino after recently graduating from the Juilliard School’s drama division. Her gum-smacking Gen Z character is full of surprises, thanks to her on-the-spot ingenuity and willingness to go there to get the job done, whatever that means.

Stiller wasn’t raised in California, but being around the industry her whole life meant she had some very interested parties when she got the news of a series regular role in a new show from the Kings with a 20-episode order at CBS.

Speaking to members of the press, including TV Insider, Stiller recounted her parents’ reaction to her casting, saying, “This is sort of uncharted territory for them. Neither of them have ever done a procedural. I told them I got the part, both were like, ‘Twenty episodes?’ There was a little bit of an ‘Eff you, are you kidding?!’ But no, they’re so supportive. And my mom just got to come visit the set for the first time, and that was so fun, and she loved it so much. I’ve learned so much from them. But, yeah, this is just sort of like its own thing, and it’s been its own thing, and it’s very, very exciting in that way, and I think they’re so proud and happy and excited for that reason, too.”

Elizabeth Fisher / CBS

Stiller also told TV Insider exclusively, “This has been the craziest, most amazing experience of my life so far. I‘ve never had a role this size, but the thing I’m finding crazier is, we’re now at a point where I’ve never worked on anything, any one project for this long. In the fall, I did the third and final season of The Comeback, and that was also an incredible experience, and that was definitely my first TV thing, but this is just a whole [other level]. That was eight episodes, which most things are nowadays, and to know that I have a 20-episode, at least, gig and a stable job, and not only that, but with some of the most well–established, admired TV writers and showrunners in the world, it’s the coolest thing ever, and I literally pinch myself every day. I’m having the time of my life.”

For the Kings’ part, they have been wildly impressed by what Stiller has delivered as Christy in the series. Michelle King told us, “She delivers gangbusters. She is as funny and dramatic and spectacular as you could possibly imagine. It’s hard to believe that she just recently got out of Juilliard. She is just masterful.”

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Robert King based Stiller’s character on bits of his own background, as he, unlike Stiller, was raised near the titular city of the show. “I grew up in San Jose, and so what I thought was interesting is I have this very large family of cousins, and they’re all in what you would call brick-and-mortar jobs, and they all kind of create a spider web of, ‘Scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours,’ but just out of love, and so it felt good to have a secret weapon in someone who grew up in the Bay Area, who knew all the ins and outs, didn’t give a s**t about tech, and yet has all these relations with cops, as my family does, with firemen, with with secretaries at other businesses. It felt like a good way to do a secret weapon investigator that you don’t see coming because she’s always wearing the TGI Fridays uniform or is always friends with the blue-collar side of life in Silicon Valley.”

Find out how Ella Stiller’s Christy Palladino brings Silicon Valley to its knees when Cupertino premieres on Thursday, October 8.

Cupertino, Series Premiere, Thursday, October 8, 10/9c, CBS