Moni Moshonov

Moshonov was born in 1951 and grew up in Ramla in a family from Bulgaria.[1][7] Published accounts differ on his precise birthplace: Walla listed Ramat Gan, while Moshonov told ynet that he was born in Ramla, at Assaf Harofeh Hospital.[2][7] His family called him Moni from infancy; he recalled learning only in first grade that his given name was Shlomo.[7] He later selected Moni for his professional credit and formally changed his name at the Interior Ministry, retaining Shlomo in parentheses.[7]

As a teenager, Moshonov hoped to become a footballer, but at 16 he joined a drama class established in Ramla by director and theater teacher Edna Shavit.[1] Acting absorbed him sufficiently that he gave up an opportunity to train with Maccabi Tel Aviv, recalling his decision in the words, “That’s it, from here I’m an actor.”[1]

After military service in an entertainment troupe, he studied acting at Tel Aviv University, where he became associated with teacher Nola Chilton.[2] He subsequently joined the theater group she established in Kiryat Shmona and worked at Haifa Theater.[2] Chilton’s approach combined realist acting influenced by Lee Strasberg with socially conscious theater drawing on real life.[2]

Moshonov became a familiar television performer through Zehu Ze, joining the program in the late 1970s and developing comic characters over two decades.[2] The original group consisted of Moshonov, Shlomo Bar-Aba, Gidi Gov, Doval’e Glickman, and Avi Kushnir; they performed together from 1978 to 1998 in a program combining satirical sketch comedy with classic Israeli songs.[3] The program has been described as Israel’s longest-running television show and compared with the American Saturday Night Live; Daniel Lappin served as its head writer and producer.[8]

One of Moshonov’s recurring characters was Baba Buba, an exaggerated Mizrachi rabbi.[9] He recalled putting the character aside during the 1991 Gulf War because audiences had come to associate it too closely with him personally, with people—including religious people—approaching him for blessings.[7] The war, particularly the sight of children wearing gas masks, made the comic persona feel inappropriate to him at that time.[7]

The original ensemble reunited for a one-time Kan 11 broadcast in March 2020.[9] Moshonov returned as Baba Buba, who drank sanitizing gel instead of arak, and appeared in the closing sketch as one of three elderly men meeting on a park bench.[9] In that sketch, his character said that his grandchildren had visited during quarantine wearing masks and gloves, taken his wallet and television, and called him “Saba”; asked whether he was certain they were his grandchildren, he answered, “Of course.”[9]

His professional partnership with Shlomo Baraba began after the two studied theater at university and worked with Chilton’s group in Ein Hod.[10] They appeared together in entertainment shows for decades, including as hosts of Zehu Ze, but also went through a 15-year period without performing together, marked by estrangement and anger.[10] Moshonov said he was angry that their collaboration had stopped; they later reunited onstage in Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys, presented in Hebrew as HaKomikayim.[10]

Moshonov’s first major film role was Weitzman in Jad Ne’eman’s 1977 Masa Alunkot, also known as Paratroopers.[2] His character is a physically weak soldier who suffers abuse from members of his unit and ultimately dies by suicide.[2] Moshonov remembered the production as a difficult experience and said that, after seeing his performance, he initially concluded that cinema was not his profession.[7]

He subsequently declined roles in Under the Nose, Shuru, and Final Cup, all of which went to Moshe Ivgy.[7] Looking back, he connected those decisions partly to his experience on Masa Alunkot and to his feeling that some of the scripts were insufficiently serious, while praising Ivgy’s performances in the resulting films.[7] His perfectionism also contributed to a period in which he turned down film scripts.[2]

Dover Kosashvili’s 2001 film Late Marriage marked a major return to cinema for Moshonov.[2] He played Yasha, a strict, conservative, and protective Georgian father, winning an Ophir Award for the performance.[3][2] To prepare for the role, he learned Georgian, the language spoken through much of the film.[4] He subsequently played Giorgi in Kosashvili’s Gift from Above, another forceful patriarchal character, portrayed in a more exaggerated register.[2]

His Israeli screen work also included Year Zero and The Way to the Cats, while his American films included We Own the Night and Two Lovers.[1] Both American productions featured Joaquin Phoenix; We Own the Night also starred Mark Wahlberg, and Two Lovers included Gwyneth Paltrow and Isabella Rossellini.[1] Moshonov valued those opportunities but did not seek a sustained move to Hollywood because he did not want to give up his theater work in Israel.[1]

In Hunting Elephants, he appeared alongside Sasson Gabbai, Yael Abecassis, and Patrick Stewart; the film was shot and premiered in Jerusalem.[11] In Bulgarian Rhapsody, he played the father of one of the teenagers and spoke Bulgarian on screen.[5] Connecting that experience to his Bulgarian Jewish family background, he said that making the film allowed him to “close a circle.”[5]

At Habima, Moshonov played the lead in the stage adaptation of The Policeman, or HaShoter Azoulai, based on the film written by Ephraim Kishon and starring Shai K. Ophir.[12] He initially felt apprehensive about taking on a part already associated with a film he considered an independent work of art.[12] Rather than repeatedly studying Ophir’s performance, he watched the film once before rehearsals and sought to portray Abraham Azoulai in his own way, hoping audiences could enjoy the play and briefly forget the movie.[12]

Moshonov also directed theater, including Ionesco’s The Chairs.[6] In a 2018 interview, he described increasingly initiating and producing projects rather than depending solely on roles in theater repertories.[6] At that time, his one-man show Mifgash Moshonov was approaching its 100th performance, while Oy Elias Elias, a production based on Hanoch Levin’s sketches and songs, had passed 300 performances.[6]

He has spoken publicly about experiencing what he later understood to be a panic attack during a performance of I Am Not Rappaport.[7] Under severe financial pressure, he left the stage feeling that he might die and ultimately sought psychological help.[7] He recalled that a therapist’s question about a line in the play helped him connect the episode with personal family dynamics.[7]

In October 2026, Moshonov and Sandra Sade, his longtime partner, read a new play portraying former hostages Aviva and Keith Siegel at Habima National Theater.[13] After the reading, he said, “You think about people who were there and aren't here and it pains the heart. Every opportunity to remember is crucial.”[13]

Moshonov received a lifetime achievement award at the 2013 Jerusalem Film Festival before the screening of Hunting Elephants.[11] His recognition has encompassed both his individual work and his long-standing collaborations in Israeli comedy.[3][14]

In 2023, Moshonov and the other Zehu Ze members were announced as recipients of an honorary doctorate from Bar-Ilan University for their joint contribution to Israeli culture.[3] The university’s announcement praised the ensemble’s humor and its role in connecting different facets of Israeli society, following the group’s return during the COVID-19 pandemic.[3]

In July 2025, Moshonov was among the artists announced to receive a Union of Israeli Artists, or AMI, lifetime achievement award, recognizing a career spanning films, television series, and theater productions.[15] That October, he and Baraba received a lifetime achievement award at the Haifa International Film Festival for their many years of contribution to Israeli culture.[14] Both thanked their families and Haifa, where they had begun their careers.[14]

During the public debate over theater performances in settlements, Moshonov stated in a 2011 interview that an actor working in a theater calling itself a national theater had a duty to perform wherever the government considered legitimate, including Ariel.[1] He said Ariel was not a “pirate settlement,” while distinguishing it from Kiryat Arba and criticizing what he regarded as coercive pressure surrounding performances there.[1]