Jesse Wente is a husband and father, as well as a writer, broadcaster, speaker and arts administrator. Born and raised in Toronto, Jesse's family comes from Chicago and Genaabaajing Anishinaabek and he is a member of the Serpent River First Nation.
Jesse is best known for more than two decades spent as a columnist for CBC Radio’s Metro Morning, first as a film critic and then as a culture critic. He was a regular columnist on Q, Unreserved and more than 20 local CBC stations. He has appeared as a guest on numerous television shows as well as the documentaries Reel Injun, Why Horror? and Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror.
Jesse has programmed for the ImagineNative Film and Media Festival and the Reel World Film Festival.
Jesse joined the Toronto International Film Festival in 2006 as a member of the Canadian Features programming team. In 2010, he became Director of Film Programmes for the festivals year round venue, Bell Lightbox and would eventually oversee the organizations theatrical, repertory, film circuit and gallery programming. Among the many retrospectives that Jesse presented while at TIFF, were shows featuring the films of Stanley Kubrick, Michael Mann, Kelly Reichardt, Studio Ghibli, Keanu Reeves, Tim Burton and Ida Lupino.
In 2012 Jesse presented First Peoples Cinema, the largest retrospective of global Indigenous cinema ever mounted to that point. It was accompanied by a gallery exhibition, Home on Native Land, co-curated with Steven Loft.
Jesse has served on the board of directors for Native Earth Performing Arts, ImagineNative, The Toronto Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
In 2017, Jesse was blanketed at a ceremony at the ImagineNative Festival in recognition of his contribution to Indigenous screen storytelling. He was also named the inaugural recipient of the Reel Activist Award from the Reelworld Film Festival. In 2018 he received the Association of Ontario Health Centres Media Award Media.
In 2018, Jesse was named the founding director of the Indigenous Screen Office and in summer 2020 he was appointed Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Jesse received the Arbor Award from the University of Toronto in 2021 for his volunteer contributions and was recently appointed a Senior Fellow of Massey College.
His first book “Unreconciled: Family, Truth and Indigenous Resistance” is a national bestseller and was picked as one of best books of 2021 by Chapters-Indigo, Apple Books and The Globe and Mail. Jesse was awarded the Rakuten-Kobo Emerging Writers in prize in Non-Fiction for Unreconciled.
Jesse is best known for more than two decades spent as a columnist for CBC Radio’s Metro Morning, first as a film critic and then as a culture critic. He was a regular columnist on Q, Unreserved and more than 20 local CBC stations. He has appeared as a guest on numerous television shows as well as the documentaries Reel Injun, Why Horror? and Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror.
Jesse has programmed for the ImagineNative Film and Media Festival and the Reel World Film Festival.
Jesse joined the Toronto International Film Festival in 2006 as a member of the Canadian Features programming team. In 2010, he became Director of Film Programmes for the festivals year round venue, Bell Lightbox and would eventually oversee the organizations theatrical, repertory, film circuit and gallery programming. Among the many retrospectives that Jesse presented while at TIFF, were shows featuring the films of Stanley Kubrick, Michael Mann, Kelly Reichardt, Studio Ghibli, Keanu Reeves, Tim Burton and Ida Lupino.
In 2012 Jesse presented First Peoples Cinema, the largest retrospective of global Indigenous cinema ever mounted to that point. It was accompanied by a gallery exhibition, Home on Native Land, co-curated with Steven Loft.
Jesse has served on the board of directors for Native Earth Performing Arts, ImagineNative, The Toronto Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
In 2017, Jesse was blanketed at a ceremony at the ImagineNative Festival in recognition of his contribution to Indigenous screen storytelling. He was also named the inaugural recipient of the Reel Activist Award from the Reelworld Film Festival. In 2018 he received the Association of Ontario Health Centres Media Award Media.
In 2018, Jesse was named the founding director of the Indigenous Screen Office and in summer 2020 he was appointed Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Jesse received the Arbor Award from the University of Toronto in 2021 for his volunteer contributions and was recently appointed a Senior Fellow of Massey College.
His first book “Unreconciled: Family, Truth and Indigenous Resistance” is a national bestseller and was picked as one of best books of 2021 by Chapters-Indigo, Apple Books and The Globe and Mail. Jesse was awarded the Rakuten-Kobo Emerging Writers in prize in Non-Fiction for Unreconciled.