Gil Kopatch

Gil Kopatch began as a stand-up comedian in Tel Aviv, and television soon turned him into one of Israel's better known satirical voices. His first screen exposure came in 1993, when he presented a segment on Arab cinema in the Friday programme Shishi Hai. The breakthrough followed in 1996 with his weekly Torah portion slot on Sogrim Shavua, the show hosted by Yair Lapid, where he connected each week's reading to ordinary Israeli life and ran into opposition from ultra-Orthodox parties.

Religion stayed at the centre of his writing. On stage he mounted Gospel According to Joseph, playing the father of Jesus, and in 2004 he played Jesus himself in Assi Dayan's film Gospel According to God. On the Bip channel he fronted Pini the Great, a daily strip in which he performed with a puppet fixed to his head.

His output also includes a poetry collection, Sex and Other Wars, published in 2000. Away from the stage he has campaigned for the legalisation of soft drugs and once chaired the Green Leaf party.