A Basketball Star at CA, Kevin Benjamin ’91 is Paying It Forward as a Mentor
By Nancy Shohet West ’84
When Kevin Benjamin ’91 arrived at CA from Queens, N.Y., the academic rigor and dorm setting were new to him, but the basketball court was familiar. Having honed his skills as a kid in New York City, he was the only 9th grader to make the varsity basketball team. “Some great players took me under their wing,” he remembers. “Corwin Allston ’88 was like a big brother to me.”
His parents and aunt, Karen McAlmon ’75, had encouraged him to apply to CA through the A Better Chance program, recognizing that his academic potential exceeded the opportunities he was likely to have if he stayed in Queens. At CA, he found the intellectual stimulation he was seeking. Just as important were the social relationships that led to personal growth.
Outside of basketball, he connected with peers through Harambe, an affinity group for students of color. With them, he felt immediate kinship. “We were able to relate to one another and to build some semblance of home away from home,” he says. He also made new friends whose backgrounds were unlike his. “One of my freshman roommates was from Indonesia, and the other was Korean-American,” he says. “We all came from very different walks of life. But we became a close-knit group, sharing our cultures and experiences.”
Benjamin captained the varsity basketball team for the next three years, and he upheld the team culture created by those older players who had helped him through his first year. League championships followed, but it was always more about the fellowship than the score, Benjamin says.
Then came a pivotal game. CA was playing Lexington Christian Academy, whose roster included a young superstar the college scouts were watching. Benjamin scored 44 points, helping CA pull off a narrow victory. The scouts’ eyes turned to him. He was soon drawn to Pomona College in California, where he could continue playing basketball while pursuing an excellent education.
“I knew I was never going to be in the NBA, so I set my sights on a strong academic institution where I could continue my basketball career,” Benjamin says. He played varsity basketball for two years at Pomona, then completed his degree at California State University, Northridge, where he majored in cinema and TV.
After 15 years in film production and screenwriting, ultimately in the role of senior manager for distribution operations with Disney Entertainment, in 2025 he started his own company, Razzle Dazzle Entertainment. Currently he is working on a documentary honoring his younger brother, Casey Benjamin, a Grammy Award-winning musician, songwriter, and producer who passed away suddenly in 2024.
Basketball still plays a major role in his life, now through Venice Hoops, a community partnership he co-founded with other weekend warriors that offers drills, tournaments, skills camps, and scrimmage opportunities for basketball enthusiasts of all ages on Venice Beach, near his Los Angeles home.
“Sports have always been a big part of my life,” Benjamin says. “Venice Hoops is a chance to promote the fellowship and mentorship that has meant so much to me as an athlete. Whether in New York City, in Concord, at Pomona, or on Venice Beach, basketball has helped me learn how to communicate, how to demonstrate dedication and hard work, how to deal with pressure and make good decisions under stress. Those are skills that help in business, in family, in all segments of life.”
