Julie Benko Part 1 ”Meditate”

Julie Benko, (juliebenko.com)(TW:@JujujulieBee)(IG:@jujujuliebee) an award-winning actress, singer, and writer based in NYC,  is currently marching her band out all across Broadway as the standby Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. Look for her new album, Hand in Hand, which will be released on Club44 Records this August. You can listen to her debut jazz album on Spotify here!

Julie is a recipient of the Wilde Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for her performance as Girl in Once. She also received a BroadwayWorld nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Luisa in The Fantasticks, as well as Theatre Bay Area Awards and SF Critics Circle Awards Best Featured Actress in a Musical nominations for her interpretation of Bella in Rags. She holds a BFA in Drama and an MFA in Acting from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

In addition to lending her voice to the 85th Academy Awards and the 70th Tony Awards ceremonies, Julie took home the Gold Medal and the Johnny Mercer Award in the national American Traditions Vocal Competition. In spring 2021, she was named a semi-finalist in the international Lotte Lenya Competition.

Julie recently wrote, directed, and starred in her first short, "The Newlywed's Guide to Physical Intimacy." The film won an Honorable Mention at its premiere July 2020 premiere at New Faces New Voices Film Festival and has since gained admission and won praise in numerous other festivals. Her first full-length play, "The District," received a public reading at Astoria Performing Arts Center in fall 2021 and is currently in development.

She spent the pandemic raising money for various charities via her "Quarantunes" musical duo series with jazz pianist (and her spouse) Jason Yeager, picking up French and Yiddish on DuoLingo, and fulfilling her lifelong dream of learning to play the clarinet.