ABOUT ME

Jonathan Bender, MS, MFA - Founder of WholeSpeak, LLC

WholeSpeak, LLC founder Jonathan Bender, MS, MFA  has been active in public speaking, live performance, and "the performance of everyday life" for 30 years, as well as on a path of personal and spiritual growth since a very young age. Educationally, he began with a BA in Dramatic Art and Anthropology from UC Berkeley, later followed by a Master’s Degree in Performance Studies and Speech Communication from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, where he specialized in the study of everyday life as performance. Next, his MFA program in Theater: Contemporary Performance at Naropa University specialized in physical, ensemble-developed theater and the creation of new work. There, he trained with such luminaries as Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project (renowned for The Laramie Project and I Am My Own Wife), Meredith Monk and The House, and the SITI Company.

 

He has been a performer since the mid-1980's and a theater director since 1989, and his writing has been produced in various theaters since the 1990's. He began working as a speech coach and acting teacher in 1995. In the Belly of the Whale, his solo show on Jewish identity, toured nationwide, and he is Artistic Director of The Illuminated Theater.

 

Jonathan's coaching combines his love for live performance with a lifelong quest for fostering personal growth and societal transformation.  After observing that his acting and public speaking workshops were transforming his students not just as performers but also in their everyday lives, he sought to make these techniques available to the general public. To fulfill this missive, he created WholeSpeak to offer highly effective coaching, workshops and seminars to provide individuals and corporations with immediate and discernible results. He has trained thousands of performers and public speakers at colleges and universities, private acting studios, and at multiple schools in California and Colorado.  

 

Over time, Jonathan realized he held a particular gift for helping entrepreneurs and holistic practitioners, who themselves value personal and spiritual growth, to hone their message and their business to create impact in their ideal clients' lives while creating an abundant income. Jonathan resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, and frequently travels to coach, lead workshops, give keynotes, direct and perform. He now leads online trainings, classes and workshops, and works with a small number of private clients who are ready to invest in the highest expertise of speaking.