Trivia

He followed his father and grandfather to the University of Virginia, where he graduated in 2001 with a degree in economics and foreign relations.

He is the only actor to have played both Bruce Wayne/Batman and his ally Commissioner James ''Jim'' Gordon.

Played football with (quarterback of the New Orleans Saints) Drew Brees at Austin High School and then against Drew Brees when Drew transferred to a rival school. Is now a Saints fan.

While in New York he waited tables to help support himself and shared a bunk bed in a cramped apartment in the city.

In September 2015, girlfriend Morena Baccarin announced she was pregnant with Ben's first child and planning to marry him.

Best friends with Paul Wesley.

One of his grandfathers, Robert F. ("Bob") Schenkkan, was an early proponent of both PBS and NPR. In recognition of his work, Austin, Texas' public radio and television stations KUT-FM and KLRU-TV hosted a 90th birthday celebration for him in March 2007, at which McKenzie and many of Schenkkan's other grandchildren spoke.

Father of two children, a baby girl, Frances Laiz Setta Schenkkan, on March 2, 2016. and Baby Boy, Arthur, March 9, 2021. Baby's mother is fiancee (now Wife) Morena Baccarin. Frances is his mother's name, Setta is from Morena's family, & Schenkkan is his real last name.

Ben's paternal grandfather, Robert Frederic Schenkkan, was from a Dutch Jewish family, and had both Ashkenazi and Sephardi ancestry. Ben's patrilineal ancestry can be traced back to Ben's great-great-great-great-grandfather, Abraham Juda Schenkkan Levie, who was born, c. 1781, in Amsterdam. Ben's great-great-aunt, Martha van der Zijl, died in Auschwitz in 1943; Martha was the sister of Ben's paternal great-grandmother, Josephine van der Zijl. From Ben's three other grandparents, his ancestry is English, with a smaller amount of Scottish.

Moved to New York City three weeks before 9/11

He graduated from the same high school in Austin that the Bush twins (Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Bush) graduated from. He was a senior the year they were freshmen.

Engaged to actress Morena Baccarin [November 29. 2016].

Second cousin of Sarah Drew

Uncle is Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan

Mother: Frances Schenkkan will begin the master's program in creative writing at the University of Texas in the fall. She's been a newspaper reporter and editor, and in the 1980s she served on the Austin Planning Commission and the board of the Austin Child Guidance Center. She is a recipient of the Adele Steiner Burleson prize in poetry at the university. She and husband Pieter have three sons, Ben, Nate, and Zack.

Education: Austin High, graduated 1997; University of Virginia, bachelor's degree 2001

Was a speaker at the Democratic National Convention on July 27, 2004.

His paternal grandparents both did some acting when they were young. His 22-year-old brother Nate is a Yale graduate working in avant-garde theater in New York. Younger brother Zack, 19, is attending Pomona College, a half-hour away from Los Angeles, and still pondering his future.

Graduated magna cum laude from the University of Virginia with a degree in economics and foreign affairs.

Son of Austin attorney Pieter Schenkkan and poet-writer Mary Frances Victory.

He recently moved into a new apartment in Santa Monica and bought a sleek new Infiniti G35, which he concedes he spends more on than housing.

Was voted one of InStyle's "10 Hottest Bachelors Of Summer" in July 2005, placing at number 10.

Has a manager, publicist and lawyer on the payroll (he's shopping for a new agent now that his career is taking off)