Once the children, Theroux, who was simply diagnosed with ADHD, did not precisely thrive in school

From inside the 1997, Theroux met Ben Stiller courtesy Stiller's next wife, Jeanne Tripplehorn, that have who Theroux costarred inside the an excellent Broadway production of Chekov's The brand new Around three Siblings, plus Stiller found a coach and you will an effective compadre who recommended their fledgling screenplays

Theroux grew up in Washington, DC; his father is legal counsel, their mommy a reporter and novelist, with his buddy is the novelist and you can travel creator Paul Theroux. ("We was not particularly great at one thing informative," he states. "Math remains a secret secret in my opinion. Pretending are everything i gravitated to help you, due to the fact I preferred they.") He bounced of secondary school to help you middle school just before obtaining in the a boarding college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he along with his friends would manage Shakespeare and Ionesco to have local schoolkids.