Biography: Avi Lewis

Avi Lewis on location in Monument Valley, Utah

Avi Lewis is the presenter of Fault Lines – a fortnightly show that digs deeper into what is driving the big news stories of the day.

In 2008, he was the host of Al Jazeera’s Inside USA, a weekly series examining the real issues at stake in the US presidential election.

He is also a filmmaker – he directed the feature documentary The Take, which follows Argentina’s new movement of worker-run businesses.

An emotional story of hope and resistance in the global economy, The New York Times called it “a stirring, idealistic documentary”.

In Video

Al Jazeera’s Avi Lewis on Fault Lines

More Fault Lines videos…

In 2004, it was released theatrically in Canada, the US, and across Europe, premiering at the Venice Film Festival, and winning the International Jury prize at the American Film Institute festival in Los Angeles.

His previous shows – On the Map with Avi Lewis, a daily half-hour of opinionated international news analysis, and The Big Picture with Avi Lewis, combining hard-hitting documentaries and town hall debates – aired on Canada’s public all-news network, CBC Newsworld, in 2006 and 2007.

In the late 1990s, as the host and producer of counterSpin on CBC Newsworld, Lewis presided over more than 500 nationally televised debates in three years.

In the early 1990s, he hosted City TV’s landmark music journalism show The New Music, interviewing hundreds of musicians, from David Bowie and Leonard Cohen to The Rolling Stones and The Spice Girls.

At the same time, he was Much Music’s political specialist, pioneering political “uncoverage” for a youth audience and winning a Gemini Award for Best Special Event Coverage.