Juan Manuel Benítez came to New York as a student more than two decades ago and instantly fell in love with the city.

He joined NY1 in 2003 as a member of the reporting team launching our Spanish-language sister station NY1 Noticias. There, he hosts his weekly current-affairs program Pura Política.

Over the years, Juan Manuel has been a panelist in countless electoral debates and has interviewed newsmakers, and politicians like Sonia Sotomayor and Barack Obama. Every week, he gives wider context to his reporting as a co-host of NY1’s podcast Off Topic/On Politics.

Juan Manuel is also a professor at CUNY's Craig Newmark School of Journalism, where he designed its Bilingual Journalism program.

As a teenager, he would produce radio shows with his friends; now, once in a while, he gets to guest host The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC.

Juan Manuel was born in Badajoz, a town in the Spanish region of Extremadura. He is a graduate of Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. He lives in Harlem with his husband, Tazjuan Starr.