Rivka Michaeli is an actress, comedienne, singer, TV presenter, and radio host. Michaeli started out presenting radio programmes on Israeli radio station, Kol Israel. In the 1960s and ‘70s she was a regular on a number of entertainment and variety shows with the most memorable one being Yaldut Kasha (‘rough childhood’), in which she co-starred with Yossi Banai. In the 1970s, Michaeli hosted Israel’s annual radio music festival (The Israel Song Festival), and also appeared in legendary satire programme, Nikui Rosh (‘head clearing’). In the eighties, Michaeli was the host of popular TV show, Siba Le’Mesiba (‘cause for celebration’) between 1986-1990. Highlights of Michaeli’s TV credits include The Brown Girls, Shabatot VeHagim (‘weekends and holidays’), the Israeli remake of Golden Girls, Where Do You Live?, Elisha, and Ze lo HaGil (‘it’s not the age’). Her film credits include Fish, Football and Girls (Uri Zohar, 1968), The Big Dig (Ephraim Kishon, 1969), Beautiful Troubles! (Assi Dayan, 1976), Amazing Grace (Amos Guttman, 1992), Im Hukim (‘with rules’) (Dover Kosashvili, 1997), The Glow (Yigal Bursztyn, 2003), Life is Life (Michal Bat-Adam, 2003), and Dr. Pomerantz (Assi Dayan, 2011). Her performance in Julie Shles’ Joy (2005) earned Michaeli a Best Supporting Actress Ophir award.
Beyond her film and television body of work, Michaeli has also been a stage regular in Israel’s top theatres including Habima, the Cameri, and Beit Lessin. In 2018, she was named the laureate of a Lifetime Achievement Award at that year’s Israeli Theatre Awards ceremony.
