He replaces the departing Matt Wolf, who has held the post for 13 years. Benedict will begin his job in February. He will write a regular theatre column, theatre reviews and new reports.
Benedict was most recently the London theatre critic for Bloomberg News. He has also served as arts editor at the Observer, and functioned as columnist, critic, arts editor and theatre editor at the Independent. He has free-lanced for the Financial Times, the Guardian, Evening Standard, Esquire and Elle.