Julian Benson (26 February 1971 – 19 April 2025) was an Australian-born Irish talent agent, choreographer who was known for his role as a judge on the

RTÉ One RTÉ One is an Irish free-to-air flagship television channel owned and operated by RTÉ. It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as ''Telefís Éireann'' on 31 December 1961, it was renamed ''R ...

series, ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Strictly Come Dancing (widely known as Dancing with the Stars)'' is an international television franchise based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing,'' itself a successor to the show ''Come Dancing'' (1950–1998) ...

.''

Early life

Julian Benson was born in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

, Australia where he did his formative dance training. He and his family moved to

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

when Julian was twelve years old.

Professional dance career

Benson studied in

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

obtaining a degree in English, Irish and Psychology, before studying for two years in Paris. He would eventually become the Head of Dance in

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

. As a choreographer, Benson produced many productions including

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Opus number, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. Th ...

with the

Scottish Ballet Scottish Ballet is the national ballet company of Scotland and one of the five leading ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Northern Ballet. Founded in 1 ...

Talent agency

Benson ran Julian Benson Management, a talent agency for television presenters and actors. Some of his clients included

Boyzone Boyzone were an Irish boy band created in 1993 by the talent manager Louis Walsh. Before even recording any material, Boyzone made an appearance on RTÉ's ''The Late Late Show (Ireland), The Late Late Show''. Its most successful line-up was co ...

member

Mikey Graham Michael Christopher Charles "Mikey" Graham (born 15 August 1972) is an Irish singer-songwriter, actor and record producer. He debuted in 1993 alongside Keith Duffy, Ronan Keating, Shane Lynch, and Stephen Gately as part of Irish pop group Bo ...

Fair City ''Fair City'' is an Irish television soap opera which has been broadcast on RTÉ One since 1989. Produced by the public service broadcaster RTE, it first aired on Monday, 18 September 1989. It has won several awards and is both the most po ...

actors Maclean Burke and Donna Anita Nikolaisen, and television presenter

Eoghan McDermott Eoghan McDermott (born 15 April 1983) is an Irish television and radio presenter. He has presented ''The RTÉ 2fm Breakfast Show'' on radio and hosted ''The Voice of Ireland'' and Ireland's Junior Eurovision Song Contest selection shows on telev ...

, whom Benson regarded as one of his best friends.

Media career

From 2017 until 2020, Benson was a judge on the Irish version of ''Dancing with the Stars'' for

alongside Loraine Barry and Brian Redmond. In 2020, Benson left the panel and was replaced by Arthur Gourounlian.

Personal life and death

Benson was diagnosed with

cystic fibrosis Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder inherited in an autosomal recessive manner that impairs the normal clearance of Sputum, mucus from the lungs, which facilitates the colonization and infection of the lungs by bacteria, notably ''Staphy ...

at the age of two and was given a life expectancy of thirteen years. Benson kept his diagnosis private for over forty years before revealing it in an interview with

Ryan Tubridy Ryan Tubridy (born 28 May 1973) is an Irish broadcaster. He currently presents the weekday mid-morning programme ''The Ryan Tubridy Show'' on Virgin Radio UK, as well as a weekend programme on Sundays. His broadcasting career with RTÉ spanned ...

on The Late Late Show in 2019. In 2018, Benson launched the Julian Benson CF Foundation, an organisation fighting to help those with cystic fibrosis. On 8 December 2018, the foundation had a charity ball in order to raise funds. It was hosted by Eoghan McDermott and attended by a number of Irish celebrities. Benson was openly gay. He was a fluent

Irish language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...

speaker. Benson died of complications from cystic fibrosis in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, on 19 April 2025, at the age of 54.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benson, Julian 1971 births 2025 deaths Deaths from cystic fibrosis LGBTQ choreographers Gay dancers Australian male dancers Australian gay entertainers Australian LGBTQ broadcasters Australian LGBTQ dancers Australian choreographers Australian emigrants to Ireland Australian television personalities RTÉ Television people