Jesse Wente was born and raised in Toronto, although his family hails
from outside Chicago and the Serpent River First Nation in Northern
Ontario. Jesse fell in love with movies at an early age (watching Star
Wars at the old University Theatre) and has never lost that passion,
pursuing it at the University of Toronto before landing his first job
as a critic, writing reviews for Eye Weekly. Now a fixture on radio and
television, for the past decade Jesse has reviewed movies on CBC
Radio’s Metro Morning programme in Toronto, as well as across the
country from Charlottetown to Vancouver to Yellowknife. Jesse travels
Canada frequently, attending festivals from Montreal to Victoria, and
has served on a jury at HotDocs. He also programs at the ImagineNative
festival in Toronto. Jesse started programming for TIFF in 2006, when
he joined the Canadian Features Selection Committee.