Shlomo "Moni" Moshonov (; born 18 August 1951) is an Israeli actor, comedian, and theater director.

Early life

Moshonov was born in

Ramla Ramla (), also known as Ramle (, ), is a city in the Central District of Israel. Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with significant numbers of both Jews and Arabs. The city was founded in the early 8th century CE by the Umayyad caliph S ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, to a Bulgarian Jewish family that

immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...

to Israel from

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. His father, Moshe, who studied law in

, sold textiles at the

market. Moshonov grew up in Ramla, Israel. He did his military service in an

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

entertainment troupe.

Career

Acting

After studying drama at

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

, he joined the Haifa Theater, remaining with the group for five years. In 1977 he made his first film appearance in ''Masa Alunkot'' ("Journey of Stretchers") alongside Gidi Gov. In 1978–98, Moshonov starred along with Shlomo Bar-Aba, Dov Glickman, Gidi Gov and many more in the Israeli satirical TV show '' Zehu Ze!'', first on

Israeli Educational Television The Israeli Educational Television (IETV), informally known as Chinuchit, was a state-owned public terrestrial television network which used to concentrate on producing and broadcasting programs for school children. The first Israeli children's ...

and then Channel 2. He also appeared in the films ''The Man Who Flew in to Grab'' (1981), '' Every Time We Say Goodbye'' (1986) and '' Deadline'' (1987). During the 1980s he starred in five " Festigal" song festivals, performing children's songs. He also starred in

Arik Einstein Arieh Lieb "Arik" Einstein ( ; (3 January 1939 – 26 November 2013) was an Israeli singer, songwriter, actor, comedian and screenwriter. He was a pioneer of Israeli rock music and was named "the voice of Israel." Through both high public and c ...

's children's video ''Like Grownups'' in 1991. In 1992 he wrote, produced and starred in the film ''Cables''. He has appeared in many theater plays in the

Cameri Theater The Cameri Theatre (, ''HaTeatron HaKameri''), established in 1944 in Tel Aviv, is one of the leading theatres in Israel, and is housed at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center. History The Cameri Theatre was founded with the purpose of promoting ...

, Habima and the Beit Lessin Theater, as well as several entertainment shows with Baraba. In 2006 he directed ''Ideal Wedding'' at Habima and starred in '' The Goat: or, Who Is Sylvia?''.

Film and television

The 1992 Israeli parody film was scripted by

, Moni Moshonov, and Zvi Shissel. It is a collection of sketches, with the

frame story A frame story (also known as a frame tale, frame narrative, sandwich narrative, or intercalation) is a literary technique that serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, where an introductory or main narrative sets the stage either fo ...

being a guy (played by Einstein) flipping cable TV channels. In 2000 he starred in ''Besame Mucho'' and in Dover Kosashvili's '' Late Marriage'' in 2001, for which he won the Israeli Film Academy Award for best supporting actor. In 2002 he starred in

Amos Gitai Amos Gitai () is an artist and an Israelis, Israeli filmmaker, born 11 October 1950 in Haifa, Israel. Gitai's work was presented in several major retrospectives in Pompidou Center in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Lincoln Center for ...

's '' Kedma''. In 2003 he played in Kosashvili's next film '' A Gift from Above'', and starred in ''Year Zero''. In 2004 he joined the sketch show '' Ktzarim'' on the Channel 2, for which he won an Israeli Film Academy Award for best actor in a comedy series, and in 2007 he hosted the Israeli version of '' Thank God You're Here'' on Channel 10. In 2006 he starred in ''Forgiveness'' ("Mechilot") and in '' We Own the Night'' in 2007. In 2008 he joined the cast of the second season of ''

Betipul ''BeTipul'' (; lit. ''In Therapy'') is an Israeli television drama, winner of the Television Academy Award revolving around the personal and professional life of an Israeli psychologist, Reuven Dagan, played by Assi Dayan. The series portrays a ...

'', and starred in '' Two Lovers''. In 2012 he played in the Israeli TV series, '' The Gordin Cell'' as Peter Yom-Tov, an old Shin-Bet agent from

. He co-starred as Nick in the 2013 movie '' Hunting Elephants''. In the same year, he appeared in '' Shraga Bishgada'', an Israeli TV show. In 2014 he played in the Bulgarian film '' Bulgarian Rhapsody'', which became the Bulgarian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the

87th Academy Awards The 87th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2014 and took place on February 22, 2015, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, beginning at 5:30 ...

. In 2015 he portrayed former

Bank of Israel The Bank of Israel (, ) is the central bank of Israel. The bank's headquarters is located in Kiryat HaMemshala in Jerusalem with a branch office in Tel Aviv. The current governor is Amir Yaron. The primary objective of the Bank of Israel is to ...

governor

Stanley Fischer Stanley Fischer (; October 15, 1943 – May 31, 2025) was an American and Israeli economist who served as the 20th vice chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2017. Fischer previously served as the 8th governor of the Bank of Israel from 2 ...

in a controversial TV ad campaign for Amir Bramly's Kela fund, which was broadcast in

Prime time Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

including the "Golden Break" before the winner announcement in two high rating

reality shows Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

. In 2020, he appeared in the

reboot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...

of '' Zehu Ze!'' and '' The Jews are Coming''.

Personal life

Moshonov has been married since 1977 to actress Sandra Sadeh, and is the father of opera singer and actor and musician Michael Moshonov. He resides in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Moshonov, Moni 1951 births Bulgarian Jews Jewish Israeli male actors Living people Israeli people of Bulgarian-Jewish descent Israeli male comedians Israeli theatre directors Ophir Award winners People from Ramla Israeli male film actors Israeli male stage actors Israeli male television actors