Ben Mankiewicz is the primetime host of Turner Classic Movies. When he made his TCM debut more than 20 years ago in September 2003, he became only the second host hired in the network's history. 

During his career at TCM, he has introduced thousands of movies on the air. Additionally, he’s become one of the best interviewers in the business, leading thoughtful and entertaining long-form conversations with more than two hundred of the industry’s top talents, including Steven Spielberg, Mel Brooks, Bruce Springsteen, Sophia Loren, Eva Marie Saint, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Billy Crystal, Harrison Ford, Warren Beatty, Spike Lee, Annette Bening, Paul Thomas Anderson, Al Pacino, Ava DuVernay, Jamie Lee Curtis, Lin Manuel Miranda, Julie Andrews, Conan O’Brien, Olivia Wilde, Cicely Tyson, Robert Redford, Pam Grier, Quentin Tarantino, Billy Dee Williams, Jodie Foster, Brad Bird, Stacey Abrams, Maureen Dowd, Faye Dunaway, Lou Gossett, Jr., and Michael Douglas.

Oh, and Tom Hanks. 

Mankiewicz is the host of TCM’s first podcast, The Plot Thickens. I’m Still Peter Bogdanovich, The Devil’s Candy, Lucy, Here Comes Pam, and John Ford were met with outstanding reviews and industry awards. For its sixth season currently airing, Ben digs through his own family stories to understand how it turned out so badly for his Oscar-winning uncle, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, writer and director of one of the most expensive and infamous movies ever made: Cleopatra.  

He is also the host of Talking Pictures with Ben Mankiewicz, a collaboration between TCM and HBO Max. The first season included director guests Steven Soderbergh, Nancy Meyers, Bill Hader, Alexander Payne, Emerald Fennell, and Cord Jefferson.  The second comedy-focused season featured Bill Murray, Paul Scheer, Bridget Everett, Carol Burnett, Jason Reitman, Henry Winkler, and more. 

Since 2019, Mankiewicz has served as a contributor to the Peabody and Emmy-winning news magazine, CBS News Sunday Morning.  

Prior to TCM, Mankiewicz worked as a reporter and anchor in Charleston, SC, and Miami, FL, twice being named Best Anchor in South Florida by The New Times. 

Mankiewicz moved to Los Angeles nearly 75 years after his grandfather, screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz (“Mank” to all his friends), headed west to work in the picture business. Soon after arriving, Herman cabled his friend Ben Hecht in New York, "There are millions to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots. Don't let this get around." His grandson is now proudly one of those idiots.

He's a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Tufts University, and Georgetown Day School in Washington, DC, the school with the least fearsome mascot in recorded history: the Grasshoppers. 

Mankiewicz lives in Los Angeles with his charming and dynamic wife, their whip-smart daughter, and three dogs: one who’s perfect, one who’s new and nearly perfect, and one who’s available for adoption at any time. Seriously, please take him.