Jeanne Beker

Jeanne Beker (born 19 March 1952) is a Canadian television personality, author and newspaper columnist, who covers fashion and lifestyle news for Citytv, FashionTelevisionChannel and "The Globe and Mail".

Beker was born in Toronto, Ontario and first launched her career as an actor, landing a role in the CBC Television sitcom "Toby" in 1968. She subsequently entered the theatre program at York University, and then went to Paris to study mime under Étienne Decroux. She then returned to Canada, working for CBC Radio as an arts and entertainment reporter in St. John's while pursuing her theatrical career.

Beker returned to Toronto in 1978, producing daily lifestyle and entertainment features for 1050 CHUM. She launched CITY's ground-breaking music magazine show "The NewMusic" in 1979 as co-host with J. D. Roberts, and also became an entertainment reporter for "CityPulse". She briefly hosted "Rockflash" news segments on MuchMusic when that station was launched, hosted "MovieTelevision", produced segments for "Entertainment Tonight", and in 1985 she became host of "FashionTelevision", the role with which she has been most famously associated. In 1995, she launched @Fashion, the Internet's first-ever fashion website, for American communication giant MCI.

Beker has also launched her own fashion lines, "Jeanne Beker", for Eaton's, and "Inside Out by Jeanne Beker", with Sears Canada. In addition, she was an honorary chair of Toronto's annual Fashion Cares, one of the world's largest HIV/AIDS fundraising events, is on the honorary board of Gilda's Club, and has been involved with numerous charitable organziations over the years. Last year, she was honoured with the prestigious "Crystal" lifetime achievement award by Women in Film and Television.

In addition Beker is the editor-in-chief of "FQ Magazine" and "SIR", published by Kontent Group in Toronto. A CityTV documentary series entitled "Cover Stories" debuted in 2006, following Beker and the Kontent Group team as they publish each issue of "FQ".

She is also the author of three books:
* "Jeanne Unbottled: Adventures in High Style" (2001, Stoddart, ISBN 0-7737-3266-7)
* "The Big Night Out" (2005, Tundra, ISBN 0-88776-719-2)
* "Passion for Fashion: Careers in Style" (to be published in 2008 by Tundra)

She was previously (from 1986 to 1998) married to Toronto radio personality Bob Magee, but is now divorced. They share two teenage daughters together in Toronto.

Beker has served as a judge on Canadian reality television show "Canada's Next Top Model" for the past two seasons.

References

External links

* [http://www.fashiontelevision.com Fashion Television]
* [http://www.fashiontelevision.com/show/personality_jeannebeker.aspx Fashion Television: Jeanne Beker biography]
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