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
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
- 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
- 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
- ^ 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
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
