Richard Kerbaj
Richard Kerbaj is a BAFTA-winning, twice Emmy-nominated filmmaker, writer and multi-award winning print journalist. Kerbaj specialized in investigating crime and national security-related stories during his 20 year career at newspapers in Australia and Britain.
Kerbaj's most recent projects include the book The Secret History of the Five Eyes: The untold story of the international spy network in 2022, and Litvinenko in 2022, a true-crime TV drama centred on the 2006 assassination of Alexander Litvinenko by Russian agents operating in London.
Life[edit]
Born in Melbourne, Australia to parents of Druze origin, Kerbaj's family moved to a village in Lebanon in 1980 when he was 2 years old. They became trapped by the country's escalating civil war.[1]
His family returned to Melbourne and lived in Toorak where they ran a milk bar. During Kerbaj's final year of high school his English grades improved dramatically with help from tutor and friend Ben Sheehan. In March 2001, Kerbaj started a writing course at Deakin University, where he studied under influential Australian author, journalist and photographer Peter Davis.[1] Kerbaj's first newspaper article was an August 2001 profile of host of Barry Bissell, the host of radio show Take 40 Australia, which was published in The Age.[1]
Kerbaj initially worked as a freelancer before he started working for The Australian newspaper in 2005.[1]
In 2006 Kerbaj published an article on Sheikh Taj Din al-Hilali which won the John Curtin Prize for Journalism and a Young Journalist of the Year award at News Limited which gave him the opportunity to work at a News Limited publication in London for three months.[1]
In 2018 Kerbaj shared the "Scoop of the Year" award with Tom Harper and Jon Ungoed-Thomas at the British Press Awards for their reporting on pornography found on the computer of Damian Green.[1][2]
In December,[year needed] Kerbaj praised the series' star David Tennant, stating that he had: "Saved our show because it was commissioned a few months before COVID hit. Had David decided not to stay involved, I’m not sure the drama would've been made."[citation needed]
Producer[edit]
- My Son the Jihadi, a BAFTA winning documentary about the mother of Thomas Evans, an Al Shabaab militant who was killed in 2015.[1][3][4]
- Hunting the KGB Killers, a documentary about the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko.[5]
Books[edit]
- Kerbaj, Richard (2022). The secret history of the Five Eyes : the untold story of the international spy network. London. ISBN 978-1-78946-503-7. OCLC 1338655960.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)[6]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g Wilson, Peter (14 October 2022). "From Melbourne milk bar to BAFTA winner: How Richard Kerbaj made his own luck". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
- ^ "Financial Times crowned Newspaper of the Year at National Press Awards for 2017 – Society of Editors". Retrieved 29 October 2022.
- ^ Grierson, Jamie (15 June 2015). "Mother of Briton 'killed fighting for al-Shabaab' felt let down by authorities". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
- ^ Reviews:
- "My Son the Jihadi". True Vision TV. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
- Chasse, Kelsie. "In Review: My Son the Jihadi; How one family's experience with extremism is not extreme". NAOC. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
- Craw, Victoria (26 October 2015). "My Son the Jihadi documents heartbreaking story of family of Thomas Evans". News.com.au. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
- Billen, Andrew. "TV review: My Son the Jihadi; The Last Kingdom". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
- "My Son The Jihadi: From electrician to Al-Shabaab fighter". The Independent. 22 October 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
- "My Son the Jihadi, Channel 4". Financial Times. 16 October 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
- "My Son the Jihadi: What turns teenagers to terrorism?". www.thenationalstudent.com. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
- ^ Reviews:
- Nicholson, Rebecca (18 April 2017). "Hunting the KGB Killers – gripping documentary more outrageous than a spy movie". the Guardian. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
- Rabinowitz, Dorothy. "'Hunting the KGB Killers' Review: The Life and Death of a Secret Agent". WSJ. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
- Hogan, Michael (17 April 2017). "Hunting the KGB Killer review: a gripping and timely insight into the dark side of Putin's post-Soviet superpower". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
- "Hunting the KGB Killers, C4 — 'a fantastic detective story'". Financial Times. 14 April 2017. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
- "TV Review of the Week: Hunting the KGB Killers, Broadchurch and Hospital People". The National. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
- "Hunting the KGB Killers". True Vision TV. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
- Baylis, Matt (18 April 2017). "Last night's TV reviewed: Bitter taste of espionage". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
- ^ Reviews:
- Bloomfield, Steve (2 October 2022). "The Secret History of the Five Eyes by Richard Kerbaj review – secrets and spies". the Guardian. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
- Caterson, Simon (30 September 2022). "Bye bye Bond: What it's really like inside the secretive Five Eyes spy network". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
- Edwards, Peter (25 November 2022). "Peter Edwards reviews "The Secret History of the Five Eyes: The untold story of the international spy network" by Richard Kerbaj". Australian Book Review. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
- Bowen, Jeremy (14 September 2022). "The "Five Eyes" spies who fought the West's secret wars". New Statesman. Vol. 151, no. 5686. London. pp. 50–51. eISSN 1758-924X. ISSN 1364-7431. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
- Fisher, David. "NZ's secretive role in Five Eyes spy alliance laid bare in new book". NZ Herald. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
- Flitton, Daniel. "Downer, Turnbull, Trump and a poke in the Five Eyes | Lowy Institute". Lowy Institute. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
- H. Wise, Douglas. "Reviewing The Secret History of the Five Eyes". The Cipher Brief. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
- "The Secret History of the Five Eyes by Richard Kerbaj review – secrets and spies". Pehal News. 2 October 2022. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
- Gibson, Nevil (18 October 2022). "Five Eyes: The spy network that protects the West". NBR | The Authority since 1970. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
- "The Secret History of the Five Eyes - Good Reading". 21 August 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
- Deery, Phillip (8 November 2022). "Eyes spy • Phillip Deery". Inside Story. Carlton, Victoria. ISSN 1837-0497. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
- Stevenson, Tom (19 January 2023). "Friends with Benefits". London Review of Books. Vol. 45, no. 02. ISSN 0260-9592. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
External links[edit]
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