Ralph Benmergui Biography
Raphael "Ralph" Benmergui (born 1955) is a Canadian television and radio personality, a writer, an ordained spiritual director, and a strategic advisor in political, environmental, and academic realms.
Early life and education
Born to a Sephardi Jewish family in Tangier, Morocco, and raised in Toronto, Benmergui studied journalism at Ryerson Polytechnical Ins*ute, where he was news director and program producer at the university's radio station, CKLN-FM.
Career
While Benmergui was still at Ryerson, the CBC offered him a research job in Winnipeg. From there, he went on to produce current affairs do*entaries and was named host of Night Lines, a late-night music show on CBC Stereo. Back in Toronto, Benmergui hosted Prime Time, a nightly one-hour entertainment program on CBC Radio, and its weekend sister program The Entertainers. He later moved on to co-host CBC Television's Midday with Valerie Pringle, and also later hosted the variety show Friday Night! with Ralph Benmergui and the talk show Benmergui Live.
He has won a prestigious *an Prize for Best International Youth Programming, a Yorkton Film Festival prize for Best Youth Programming, and has been the recipient of five Gemini Award nominations.
Benmergui produced Stuart McLean's Christmas special and the children's quiz show SmartAsk for CBC television, and for Vision TV he produced five episodes of a series called Seekers, chronicling the experience of five people on journey to find their spirituality, and Ralph Benmergui: My Israel, taking a critical and bipartisan look at the issues and landscape of Israel. He has also hosted three specials, en*led Seriously Funny in Canada and Punchlines in the Sand in the US, where three comics comment on and explore serious issues of the day through comedy.
In 2009, Benmergui joined the Green Party of Canada as a strategic communications advisor. He has since worked as a strategic advisor at different political, environmental, media, business, and academic organizations and boards. He continues to periodically work in media. He is writing a book about ageing and sageing, and he leads workshops and counsels others on this topic.
In 2021, Benmergui started a podcast for The Canadian Jewish News called Yehupetzville about Jews living in small towns across the country.
Personal life
Benmergui is married to Cortney Pasternak, a registered psychotherapist, educator, and former television journalist. He is the father of four and the grandfather of two.
