David Benedict is a culture critic and broadcaster. He read drama at Hull University, spent ten years as an actor, singer and director and was artistic director of the U.K.’s national lesbian and gay theatre company, Gay Sweatshop. He joined The Independent in 1993, becoming a daily arts columnist and associate editor. The former arts editor of The Observer, he is the London critic of Variety and a weekly columnist for The Stage and divides his time between criticism, arts journalism and broadcasting.