User:Benitodifonzo

Born into an Irish-Italian family in Homebush, Sydney, Australia, Benito Di Fonzo has made a name for himself as a popular journalist, playwright, poet and performer to the extent that he has been profiled by both The Sydney Morning Herald and The Weekend Australian.

Presently a regular Arts and Entertainment writer for several Fairfax publications including Metro, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun Herald, as well as completing a Masters Degree at UTS, Benito is currently working on a novel and has several plays in pre-production.

In 2005 he wrote and performed in a weekly radio serial for FBI 94.5FM.

In 2004 “The Strange Case of The Parrot & The Stolen Sydney Opera House” played to a capacity crowd at The Studio at Sydney Opera House, and was broadcast live on Fbi-FM, as was “Attack of The Robotic Russell Crowes” in June 2006. “Pokie Face” was also re-staged at The Sydney Opera House as well as Melbourne’s VCA as part of “SHORTer & SWEETer.”

Also in 2004, Independence Jones Guerrilla Press published his verse-novel “Her, Leaving, as the Acid hits” to a glowing review from Cordite.

In 2oo1 his play “Breakfast At Krishna's” was performed to full houses at Sydney’s Tap Gallery. Between 2001 and 2007 his short plays “9/11 Conspiracy: The Musical,” “Unpeople”, “Pokie Face,” “Naked, With A Blue Light,” “Gotta Dollar “ and “I’m Frightened, & I Want My Money” were performed to glowing reviews as part of the ‘Short & Sweet Festival’, as well as being reworked, along with “Smack My Back Lackwards,” as radio plays for 2SER FM, where in 2001 Benito hosted “The Poetic Off License” and is still an occasional literary reviewer.

For many years he co-hosted Sydney’s longest running Spoken Word night Bardflys and has performed extensively, including shows in London, Edinburgh, and Australian festivals ‘The Big Day Out,’ ‘Carnivale,’ ‘Australian Poetry Festival,’ as well as Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide Fringe Festivals where he received four star reviews from The Adelaide Advertiser.

In 1993, after three years as an Audio Transcriptions Officer (AO2) at ABC Radio, followed by six months travelling and writing overseas, Benito returned to The University of Western Sydney to complete his BA in Literature and Creative Writing (1995.)

He has been published extensively in numerous newspapers, periodicals and anthologies including The Weekend Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, the ‘Short Fuse’ international anthology of Fusion Poetry, and Bardfly Magazine (of which he was co-editor).

Benito has won several awards, including the 2SER Short Story Competition, and the NSW Writers’ Centre’s Inner City Life prize.