If your first introduction to Ella Stiller is from the audience at the intimate DR2 theater near Union Square, where she’s making her off-Broadway debut in “Dilaria,” you might be guarded when you meet her in person. But Stiller takes any trepidation as a compliment.
“ There was one night, I was talking to a girl who was so kind and lovely and she said to me, ‘you are such a good actor, because I hated your character so much,’” says Stiller of a recent post-performance interaction. “And the next girl I talked to immediately said, ‘oh no, I loved her. I loved Dilaria, and I hate her. I want to be her, and I want to be nothing like her,” adds Stiller. “To me, that’s the rewarding thing to hear: that you can’t decide.”
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In person, Stiller is convivial, engaged, easy-going. She transforms onstage into Dilaria: cruel, obsessive, manipulative. Mean.
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“She does all the least socially acceptable things,” she says of the narcissistic character, a recent college grad who quickly has the 90-seat audience — and onstage, her best friend — walking on eggshells. After noticing the social media engagement that a former classmate’s death receives online, Dilaria decides to exploit the situation for her benefit. “It’s a dark comedy in the truest sense,” says Stiller of the play, which is set entirely in Dilaria’s pink-hued bedroom, complete with a dramatic illustration of Stiller-as-Dilaria on the wall. Backstage, the show’s few additional props — a small purse and kitchen knife — are queued up like Chekhov’s gun.
Downstairs in the theater basement, a bedazzled mood board that Stiller created in the spirit of Dilaria hangs on the wall of her communal dressing room. Stiller collaged photos of culture-defining women with attitude-laden phrases, pithy statements like “claws up” and Luanne de Lessup’s “Don’t be all, like, uncool” catchphrase. The only male presence on the board is an accidental sliver of Bill Hader’s eyes, peeking out “Where’s Waldo” style amid imagery of Paris Hilton, Taylor Swift, and fictional characters like Regina George.
“All I’ve ever wanted to do is plays created by women, about women,” says Stiller of the female-centric “Dilaria,” written by young playwright Julia Randall. “And not just the kind of women who are digestible for men,” she adds. “Dilaria’s not the kind of character that a man is going to find likable.”
In the play, at least one man finds Dilaria likable: her not-quite-boyfriend, played by “The Summer I Turned Pretty” star Christopher Briney. Dilaria’s college best friend, played by Chiara Aurelia (who’s soon to be replaced by Tessa Albertson), rounds out the three-person cast.
The “Dilaria” script came to Stiller during a Sisyphean month of audition self-tapes and rejection, familiar to any young actor getting their footing in the industry. The first sign that the role was “meant to be” was the frequent “Real Housewives” references. “That’s my — I don’t say guilty pleasure, ’cause I’m not guilty about it one bit — but my favorite activity is watching ‘Real Housewives,’” says Stiller, who was cast one month before the show opened in June.
“I read the script and I just had a real moment of, ‘this is about to change my life,’” she adds. “I have not connected to a script like this in a long time. And as actors, as artists, you learn that you have to trust your gut,” she adds. “There are some parts that you’re good for, but also a lot of people are gonna be good for. But then there are parts that you’re like — if I’m not doing this, then I don’t know what’s up.”
Like her character, Stiller is also a year out from graduation. The actress, who was born in L.A. and raised in New York, graduated from the drama program at Juilliard in 2024 as part of Group 53.
“The thing I feel the most lucky about is growing up in the city and growing up in a family where that was a priority: us going to see shows,” says Stiller, whose parents are Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor; both were in the crowd for opening night. ”Then as I got older, I realized how serious I was about [theater].”
She credits the rigor of her Juilliard experience for setting her up for professional success. “It’s a lot of painful memories and a lot of trauma and a lot of literal blood, sweat and tears,” she says. “But being here a year later post-grad doing this show, I feel so grateful for it, and prepared because of it,” she says. “It sort of feels like a full circle, or like a nice moment of peace, for me to feel like that hard experience — in a really real way — was worth it.”
Outside of auditions and self-tapes, Stiller has spent her first post-grad year working on film and TV projects, including the upcoming comedy film “Driver’s Ed” with Sam Nivola and fourth season of “And Just Like That,” currently airing, as a character that hasn’t yet been revealed.
“It’s a totally different world, and I really hope to do more of that,” she says of her onscreen work. “My all-time dream is to be writing and directing the stuff I’m acting in as well. That’s just where I see myself in the future. You know, I wanna be in charge — I’m an Aries,” she adds. ”But at the end of the day, my heart will always be in the theater.”
And until Dilaria’s closing night later this summer, in the theater is exactly where you’ll find her, heart and all.