{"id":445,"date":"2020-02-20T16:25:04","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T05:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/alumni-stories\/?p=445"},"modified":"2025-12-04T11:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T01:18:12","slug":"basiabonkowski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/alumni-stories\/2020\/02\/20\/basiabonkowski\/","title":{"rendered":"An enduring professional in the ever-changing television industry"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nDeciding life\u2019s too short not to follow your passion has led Basia Bonkowksi (1952-2022) to achieve a 30-year career in Australian television as a producer, presenter, writer and movie reviewer. <\/strong><\/p>\n

As a child, Basia\u2019s first love was writing, but she was also passionate about the arts and harboured a dream of becoming an actor.<\/p>\n

\u2018Being from a hard-working migrant family however, the impetus was for me to become a lawyer,\u2019 says Basia (BA (Hons) \u201975). \u2018But after a year of studying law and a serious illness, I decided that life was too short and that it was better to follow my passions. I made the switch to an arts degree at Flinders majoring in Drama and English.\u2019<\/p>\n

At Flinders University Basia quickly found a group of like-minded and talented creatives.<\/p>\n

\u2018Flinders provided an intense and stimulating creative environment,\u2019 says Basia. \u2018We created, we learnt, and we had fun!\u2019<\/p>\n

After graduating, Basia began teaching Drama to a class of 40 rowdy students at Marion High School. She says, \u2018One of the students from my Flinders days happened to be Bernie \u2018Doc\u2019 Neeson from The Angels<\/em>. I invited the band to perform at the school and finally earnt the respect of a previously \u2018untameable\u2019 class of students.\u2019<\/p>\n

With the confidence of her Flinders degree and stint of teaching in the arts, Basia spring-boarded her career into television, working on a wide range of incredibly popular programs. Early career highlights include writing, producing and guest presenting for The Movie Show<\/em> (SBS), writing and presenting for Behind the News<\/em> (ABC), movie reviewing and reporting for Good Morning Australia<\/em> (Ten), presenting for Music Video<\/em> (Ten) and becoming a household name presenting and writing for Rock Around the World<\/em> (SBS).<\/p>\n

Never losing the connection to her Polish roots, Basia wrote and produced the documentary Poland<\/em> for Channel Ten in 1990.<\/p>\n

More recently, Basia produced The Secret Life of 4-Year-olds<\/em> (ABC), Married at First Sight<\/em> (Nine) and The Block<\/em> (Nine). She is now the Executive Producer of Screentime in Sydney, where she oversees the filming and editing of the highly successful observational documentary series, RBT<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Obtaining a Master of Letters, Basia has also realised her passion for writing by publishing two non-fiction books. Inspired by her own experience as an adoptive mother, the beautifully written Jesse\u2019s World<\/em> is a \u2018warts and all\u2019 book on the reality of the challenges and rewards of bringing up children from overseas.<\/p>\n

Basia believes following her passion for the arts has paid off. She says, \u2018What is important to me is the fact that I now do something that I love in the creative arts, and that I have a family that has supported me all the way.\u2019<\/p>\n

Basia Bonkowski was awarded a 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award for her significant contribution to the creative arts as a television producer and presenter, author and movie reviewer.
\n<\/strong>Read the full list of 2019 Alumni Award recipients<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It is with great sadness that Flinders University learnt of the passing of Distinguished Alumni Award winner and beloved TV star, Basia Bonkowksi.<\/em> We extend our deepest condolences to Basia\u2019s friends, family and loved ones.<\/em><\/strong> Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deciding life\u2019s too short not to follow your passion has led Basia Bonkowksi (1952-2022) to achieve a 30-year career in Australian television as a producer, presenter, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1333,"featured_media":446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3035,825,2068,2076,1228],"tags":[1780,1779,845,1778,917,1800,1799],"class_list":["post-445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumniawards","category-college-of-business-government-and-law","category-study-creative-arts-media","category-study-humanities-social-sciences","category-stories","tag-2019-alumni-award","tag-alumni","tag-distinguished-alumni-award","tag-flinders-graduate","tag-producer","tag-screentime","tag-television-industry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/alumni-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/alumni-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/alumni-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/alumni-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1333"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/alumni-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/alumni-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/alumni-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/alumni-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/alumni-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/alumni-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}