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Ben Shapiro
Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons21

Ben Shapiro

American political commentator (born 1984)

Benjamin Aaron Shapiro (born January 15, 1984) is an American conservative political commentator and media host. He writes columns for Creators Syndicate, Newsweek, and Ami Magazine, and is editor emeritus for The Daily Wire, which he co-founded in 2015.2

From Wikipedia’s article on Ben Shapiro (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Jan 15, 1984.1

About

Shapiro is the host of The Ben Shapiro Show, a daily political podcast and live radio show. He was editor-at-large of Breitbart News from 2012 until his resignation in 2016. Shapiro has also authored 16 non-fiction books.

Shapiro has described his political views as economically libertarian and socially conservative, and is critical of the alt-right movement. He opposes abortion, gun control, same-sex marriage, transgender rights, and the Affordable Care Act. He supports capital punishment, tax cuts, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He has condemned Hamas and praised Israel and the IDF in their role in the ongoing Gaza war and overall Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

From Wikipedia’s article on Ben Shapiro, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Companies

Early life and education

  • 2004University of California, Los Angeles Bachelor of Arts; political science3 4
  • 2007Harvard Law School Juris Doctor3 4
  • Date not recordedYeshiva University High School of Los Angeles3
  • Date not recordedWalter Reed Middle School3

Benjamin Aaron Shapiro was born on January 15, 1984, in Burbank, California, to a Conservative Jewish family. He is Ashkenazi Jewish. When he was 9 years old, his family began to observe Orthodox Judaism. He started playing violin at five years old and performed at the Israel Bonds Banquet in 1996 at age 12. His parents both worked in Hollywood; his mother was a TV company executive and his father, David Shapiro, worked as a composer.

Shapiro went from Walter Reed Middle School in the San Fernando Valley to Yeshiva University High School of Los Angeles in Westside, Los Angeles, where he graduated in 2000 at age 16. He studied political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, graduating in 2004 at age 20 with a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, and membership in Phi Beta Kappa. He then attended Harvard Law School, where he studied under liberal law professors Lani Guinier and Randall Kennedy. Shapiro was a Claremont Institute Publius Fellow in 2006. He graduated from Harvard in 2007 with a Juris Doctor (J.D.), cum laude.

From Wikipedia’s article on Ben Shapiro (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Career

Occupation: jurist, writer, television personality, editor, political pundit, podcaster, radio personality, lawyer.6

Known for: Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future, How to Debate Leftists and Destroy Them: 11 Rules for Winning the Argument, The Right Side of History, Primetime Propaganda, Bullies: How the Silence Culture of the Left Works, Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth, The Ben Shapiro Show, The Daily Wire.7

2012: Law

After graduating from law school, Shapiro entered private practice at the law firm Goodwin Procter but left after 10 months. As of March 2012, he ran an independent legal consultancy firm, Benjamin Shapiro Legal Consulting, in Los Angeles.

2004–2021: Author

Shapiro became interested in politics at a young age. He started a nationally syndicated column when he was 17, becoming the youngest nationally syndicated columnist in the United States, and had written two books by age 21.

In his first book Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth (2004), Shapiro argues that the American Left has ideological dominance over universities and that professors do not tolerate non-left opinions.

In 2011, HarperCollins published Shapiro's fourth book, Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV, in which Shapiro argues that Hollywood has a left-wing agenda that it actively promotes through prime-time entertainment programming. In the book, the producers of Happy Days and M*A*S*H say they pursued a pro-pacifist, anti-Vietnam-War agenda in those series. Shapiro also became a fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

In 2013, Threshold Editions published Shapiro's fifth book, Bullies: How the Left's Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences Americans. In 2017, he released his only novel, True Allegiance, a book about "An illegal immigrant crisis breaking out along America's Southern border". In 2019, Shapiro published the book The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great, which focuses on the importance of Judeo-Christian values and laments their decline in modern America.

In 2021, Shapiro published the book The Authoritarian Moment, which argues that there is no pressing authoritarian threat in U.S. politics from the right wing. Instead, he argues that the authoritarian threat comes from the left's control of academia, Hollywood, journalism, and corporate America.

Read more

2012–2016: Breitbart News

In 2012, Shapiro became editor-at-large of Breitbart News, a news outlet founded by Andrew Breitbart. After Breitbart came under the leadership of Steve Bannon, Shapiro attempted to distance himself from him.

Shapiro resigned from his position as editor-at-large of Breitbart News in March 2016 following what he characterized as the website's lack of support for reporter Michelle Fields in response to her alleged assault by Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump's former campaign manager, in spite of video and eyewitness evidence of the assault. In his resignation statement, Shapiro stated, "Steve Bannon is a bully, and has sold out Andrew Breitbart's mission in order to back another bully, Donald Trump; he has shaped the company into Trump's personal Pravda".

Shapiro defended Bannon when he was accused of antisemitism.

2015–present: Host and The Daily Wire

In 2012, Shapiro joined KRLA-AM 870 as a host on their morning radio program alongside Heidi Harris and Brian Whitman. By 2016, he was one of the hosts for KRLA's The Morning Answer talk show. Despite pressure from Salem Media executives for show hosts to be more supportive of Donald Trump during the 2016 United States presidential election, Shapiro remained critical of Trump throughout the campaign.

Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing founded The Daily Wire on September 21, 2015. He serves as editor emeritus as well as the host of his online political podcast The Ben Shapiro Show, which is broadcast every weekday. As of March 2019, the podcast was ranked by Podtrac as the second most popular podcast in the U.S. Westwood One began syndicating The Ben Shapiro Show podcast to radio in April 2018. In 2018, Politico described the podcast as "massively popular". In January 2019, Westwood One expanded Shapiro's one-hour podcast-to-radio program, adding a nationally syndicated two-hour live radio show, for three hours of Ben Shapiro programming daily. As of March 2019, according to Westwood One, The Ben Shapiro Show was being carried by more than 200 stations, and was broadcast in nine of the top ten markets.

In September 2018, Shapiro started hosting The Ben Shapiro Election Special on Fox News. The limited-run series covered news and issues relating to the 2018 midterm elections. Shapiro has made frequent appearances on PragerU with talks on intersectionality and Hollywood with 4,900,000 to 8,400,000 views as of December 2018.

In 2021, Ben Shapiro's podcast was ranked 9th most listened to on Apple podcasts. In June 2020, Shapiro stepped down from his role as editor-in-chief of The Daily Wire — a position he'd held since the site's founding — taking on the role of editor emeritus.

2016–present: Speaker

Shapiro speaks at college campuses across the United States. In his speeches, he often presents a conservative viewpoint on controversial subjects. He spoke at 37 campuses between early 2016 and late 2017.

Some students and faculty members at California State University, Los Angeles, objected to a speech that Shapiro, who was then an editor at Breitbart News, was scheduled to hold at the university on February 25, 2016, titled "When Diversity Becomes a Problem". University president William Covino canceled the speech three days before it was to take place, intending to reschedule it so that the event could feature various viewpoints on campus diversity. Covino ultimately reversed his decision, allowing the speech to go on as planned. The day of the speech, student protesters formed human chains, blocking the doors to the event and staging sit-in protests. When Shapiro began his speech, a protester pulled the fire alarm. After the speech ended, Shapiro was escorted out by campus police. Conservative youth organization Young America's Foundation (YAF) announced it was filing a lawsuit against the university (with Shapiro as one of the plaintiffs), claiming that the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of the students were violated by Covino's attempted cancellation of the event as well as by the physical barricading of students from entering or leaving the event.

In August 2016, DePaul University revoked an invitation for Shapiro to address students at the school and barred him from entering the campus owing to "security concerns".

On September 14, 2017, Shapiro gave a speech at the invitation of the University of California, Berkeley, student organization Berkeley College Republicans, in which he criticized identity politics. The event was supported by the YAF and BCR. It involved a large police presence, which had been promised by Berkeley Chancellor Carol T. Christ in her August letter that supported free speech. Together, the university and the city of Berkeley spent $600,000 (equivalent to $788,080 in 2025) on police and security for the event, which transpired with nine arrests but no major incidents.

2013–present: Other activities

On October 7, 2013, Shapiro and business partner Jeremy Boreing co-founded the U.S. media criticism website TruthRevolt with funding from the David Horowitz Freedom Center. TruthRevolt ceased operations in March 2018.

On January 14, 2021, Shapiro was featured as a guest writer for Politico's Playbook newsletter, where he defended House Republicans who opposed the second impeachment of Donald Trump. The newsletter drew immense backlash from many Politico staffers, some of whom argued that Shapiro should not have been allowed to write the article. Matthew Kaminski, editor-in-chief of Politico, refused to apologize and defended the decision to enable Shapiro to write the article, stating, "We're not going to back away from having published something because some people think it was a mistake to do so." According to the Daily Beast, more than 100 Politico staffers signed on to a letter to publisher Robert Allbritton criticizing both Politico's decision to feature Shapiro's article and the response from Kaminski.

On January 26, 2024, he appeared alongside artist Tom MacDonald in the music video for MacDonald's rap song "Facts", on which Shapiro is featured. The song held the No. 1 spot on Apple Music in late January and early February 2024. On February 5, 2024, the song debuted at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Concurrent to his feature in MacDonald's song, Shapiro and his father co-produced We Will Rise, a musical about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It ran in Israel from October to December 2024.

In 2025, Shapiro was honored as one of the torchbearers in the national Israeli Independence Day ceremony.

From Wikipedia’s article on Ben Shapiro (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Personal life

  • BornJan 15, 1984, Los Angeles8
  • CitizenshipUnited States9
  • ResidenceSouth Florida10
  • Children411

Healthcare

Shapiro has backed repealing the Affordable Care Act. In 2021, Shapiro said that he was in favor of the COVID-19 vaccine and that he was vaccinated, but is against COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Religion

Shapiro practices Orthodox Judaism, which he states informs his ideological positions. Shapiro wears a yarmulke, the traditional Jewish skullcap. In a 2011 tweet, Shapiro claimed that Judaism is plagued by "Bad Jews" who "largely vote Democrat". The same year, he wrote an article titled "Jews in Name Only" in which he claimed "Jews who vote for Obama are, by and large, Jews In Name Only (JINOs)" and that such Jews "do not care about Israel" or that they "care about it less than abortion, gay marriage and global warming". During the 2016 presidential election, he wrote an article titled "No, It Doesn't Matter That Bernie Sanders Is Ethnically Jewish. He's a Jew In Name Only."

In October 2022, Shapiro condemned Kanye West's antisemitic comments, comparing them to propaganda in Nazi Germany. He also called West "unstable".

In a 2014 YouTube video entitled "The Myth of the Tiny Radical Muslim Minority", Shapiro said, "We're above 800 million Muslims who are radicalized – more than half the Muslims on earth. That's not a minority... the myth of the tiny radical Muslim minority is just that: it's a myth". PolitiFact and Channel 4 News in the UK rejected his methodology, arguing that support for Sharia law was not sufficient to label an individual a "radical Muslim", and that "The meaning of Sharia law varies from sect to sect and nation to nation."

In the 2017 Quebec City mosque shooting, six Muslims were killed by Alexandre Bissonnette. Police presented evidence that Bissonnette checked Shapiro's Twitter feed 93 times in the month leading up to the shooting. Shapiro condemned the attack and said he did not incite the shooting.

Read more

Shapiro married Mor Toledano, an Israeli medical doctor of Moroccan Jewish descent, on July 8, 2008, in a traditional Jewish ceremony in Acre, Israel. Shapiro's wife earned her M.D. from the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. The couple have three daughters and two sons. They practice Orthodox Judaism.

In 2020, Shapiro announced that he and his family were leaving California. He relocated headquarters of The Daily Wire to Nashville, Tennessee, while he and his family resettled in South Florida.

Shapiro is the cousin of actress Mara Wilson. According to a 2025 article in The Hollywood Reporter, he has stated that the two have not spoken in years, and that their political beliefs do not align.

From Wikipedia’s article on Ben Shapiro (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Awards

  • 2025Independence Day (Israel) torchbearer12

Sources

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