Jonny Benjamin MBE is a mental health campaigner, author, filmmaker, and founder of the charity, Beyond.

At the age of 20 he was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar, and later began making films on YouTube about the condition that have been watched by over a million people.

His 2014 social media campaign to successfully find Neil Laybourn, a stranger who talked him out of jumping off a bridge when he was suicidal, went viral and led to the two becoming prominent spokespeople on suicide prevention.

Jonny has talked publicly about living with mental illness around the world to help educate and break stigma in settings such as Yale University, The Empire State Building, and Kensington Palace. He also produced and presented documentaries on BBC Three and Channel 4, including multi award-winning The Stranger On The Bridge.

In 2017, Jonny co-founded the workplace conference This Can Happen, and subsequently helped setup the social enterprise Speaker’s Collective in 2018.

In the same year, he co-founded the youth mental health charity, Beyond. Each February, they hold a wellbeing festival for schools and colleges, as well as giving grants to provide mental health support for young people across the UK.

Jonny has written 3 books, including a book of poetry, Pill After Pill. His most recent paperback, The Book of Hope, was published in 2022.

Jonny’s second book, The Stranger on the Bridge, is now being adapted into a stage musical for the West End.

Currently, he is undertaking mental health research, having completed various projects over the past few years with organisations including the Wellcome Trust, the McPin Foundation, and Exeter University.