After Dinner SpeakersBaroness Floella Benjamin DBE is an actress, author, presenter, businesswoman, politician and guest speaker.
Born in the small town of Pointe-à-Pierre, Trinidad, in 1949, Baroness Benjamin came to Britain as a 10-year-old in 1960 as a Windrush child.
She left school at 16 and worked in a bank for three years, aiming to become Britain’s first black female bank manager.
However, while juggling her banking day job with night school, where Floella studied for A-levels, her career path changed after she auditioned for a role in a musical.
With no prior drama school training, Floella was cast in the show, and her life in show business took off.
After appearing in several stage musicals, such as Jesus Christ Superstar and Black Mikado, Floella moved into TV, starring in many leading dramas.
Play School:
While acting, Floella also appeared in the BBC’s children’s series Play School. The programme featured songs, stories, and activities with presenters in the studio, plus a short film introduced through the set’s square, round, or arched window.
Wearing her trademark blue beads, Floella became a household name and presented Play School for 12 years.
In 1987, Floella started her own successful, award-winning television production company. In 2004, the company received the Royal Television Society Award for the production ‘Coming to England‘, adapted from her book of the same name.
Floella Benjamin – Guest Speaker:
As an inspirational keynote speaker, Baroness Floella Benjamin draws on her remarkable life and career to deliver engaging, thought-provoking talks on diversity, inclusion, resilience and overcoming adversity.
Combining personal experience with warmth, humour, and powerful storytelling, she inspires audiences to embrace opportunity, challenge prejudice, and recognise the importance of kindness, determination, and positive change.
Author:
Baroness Benjamin has written over 30 books, and in 2016 the 20th-anniversary edition of ‘Coming to England‘ was named a ‘Guardian Children’s Book of the Year‘. For over two decades, schools and universities have used the book to explore the Windrush journey.
Awards and Positions:
Her broadcasting work has earned numerous awards. These include an OBE in 2001, a Special Lifetime Achievement BAFTA Award in 2004 and the J.M. Barrie Lifetime Award in 2012 for her lasting cultural legacy.
In 2013, she was made a Fellow of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
In 2017, she was appointed President of the Society of Women Writers and Journalists.
To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Empire Windrush’s arrival, she created a RHS Chelsea Windrush Garden, which won a gold medal.
She served as Chancellor of the University of Exeter for ten years. Floella became famous for hugging every graduate and urging them to ‘change the world’.
She was the first female Trinidadian to be elevated to the House of Lords as Baroness Floella Benjamin of Beckenham.
In 2018, she was granted Honorary Freedom of the City of London. The Prime Minister appointed her Chair of the Windrush Commemoration Committee.
In the 2020 New Year Honours, she was appointed Baroness Benjamin, Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for Services to Charity.
Baroness Floella Benjamin enjoys the great outdoors and is a keen gardener. She champions children’s rights, diversity and inclusion, and Black History.
