Benoit Charest was born in Montreal in 1964 to an English mother and a French Canadian father. At the age of 13, Benoit developped a passion for the guitar and for learning music such as the Beatkes and Led Zeppelin by ear.

Inevitably, he discovered jazz and as the age of 17, he decided to take private classes with Neil Solar, qualified at Boston’s Berkley School of Music. Solar taught him yhe basic of harmony, which helped him enormously matser the playing of an instrument and understand the music in general.

During his university studies Benoit made money playing with the best jazzmen of Montreal. In 1991, Benoit signed his first contract writing music for the film «  Montreal retro » for which he composed, arranged and directed the music. Since then, he has composed about 15 movie soudtracks, notably for the Cesar of the best music written and others price-winning « Les Tiplettes de Bellevvlle ».

Benoit has also composed music for television, theatre and about sixty advertissements. He wrote the soundtrack for Cordell Barker’s comedy « Runaway » as well as the soundtrack for the controversial film « Polytechnique » written and directed by Quebecker Denis Villeneuve.