Ben Shapiro

Benjamin Aaron Shapiro (born January 15, 1984) is an American conservative political commentator, author, podcaster, and attorney. A prodigy who graduated high school early and entered college at age 16, Shapiro earned a B.A. in political science summa cum laude from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2004 and a J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2007.

Shapiro began his career as one of the youngest nationally syndicated columnists in the United States at age 17. He has authored over a dozen books, several of which became The New York Times bestsellers, including Primetime Propaganda (2011), which exposed left-leaning biases in Hollywood, and The Right Side of History (2019), arguing for the Judeo-Christian foundations of Western civilization. In 2015, he co-founded The Daily Wire, a digital media company that has become a leading conservative outlet for news, commentary, and entertainment, and launched The Ben Shapiro Show, a daily podcast analyzing politics, culture, and current events. The show has attracted millions of listeners and ranks as the largest conservative podcast in the United States.

Ben Shapiro was born on January 15, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, to David Shapiro, a composer who worked in Hollywood on film and television music, and his wife, a television company executive. His family was of Ashkenazi Jewish descent and initially observed Conservative Judaism.

The Shapiro household became more religiously observant when Ben was around nine years old, transitioning to Orthodox Judaism; by age 11, his parents formally adopted Orthodox practices and relocated the family to an Orthodox community in Los Angeles. This change instilled strict adherence to Jewish rituals, including Shabbat observance and kosher dietary laws, which structured family life around religious principles and community involvement.

Ben Shapiro married Mor Toledano, an Israeli-born medical doctor of Moroccan descent, on July 8, 2008, in a traditional Jewish ceremony in Acre, Israel. At the time, Shapiro was 24 years old and Toledano was 20; the couple had met while attending the University of California, Los Angeles. Mor Shapiro, who earned her MD from UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, maintains a low public profile focused on her medical career and family responsibilities.