Alex Benjamin (he/him) is an interdisciplinary artist and arts administrator whose experience as a performance artist, makeup designer, and ceramic sculptor informs his approach as a cultural worker.

He is currently the Program Director at Luminarts Cultural Foundation at the Union League Club of Chicago, supporting exemplary, emerging artists with financial awards, fellowships, and professional development opportunities. He has also worked in fundraising at UChicago Arts and, before that, in programming and education at the Poetry Foundation, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Emerald City Theatre, and Adventure Stage Chicago. He is a 2023 Fellow of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Chicago chapter and has served as a member of the Chicago History Museum Costume Council.

As his drag persona Wanda, he has performed original solo and collaborative works at venues all over Chicago including Thalia Hall, Steppenwolf, Metro, The Den Theatre, Jackalope Theatre, and Tack Room, and toured nationally and internationally including performances in New York City, Los Angeles, Provincetown, London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. He co-founded SADHAUS Drag and Performance Art Collective, which created and performed original full-length drag theatre. He also led drag tours at the Art Institute of Chicago through Museum Hack and founded Chicago’s first drag ghost tour company, Death Becomes Her.

He is a recipient of the Illinois Arts Council's Individual Artist Grant for his one person show The Witch Project (2020), which will be returning to The Den Theatre in October 2025.

Alex is a proud resident of Chicago, where he lives with his dog Yoko in an urban cottage surrounded by plants, books, and surrealist artwork. All opinions expressed and projects described in the pages following are his own.