Frank Buckley

Evening Host

Frank Buckley anchors KTLA’s Emmy Award-winning signature broadcast, L.A.’s No.1-rated KTLA 5 Morning News. He is also the host/executive producer of the 30-minute TV show and podcast, Frank Buckley Interviews, airing on weekends on KTLA and also available on YouTube and all podcast platforms.

Frank Buckley Interviews features thought-provoking, long-form conversations with newsmakers, the fascinating or famous, and with everyday people doing extraordinary things.

Frank joined KTLA in 2005 from CNN, where he had been a national correspondent. Frank is the recipient of numerous awards, including Emmys for hard news reporting, for news special for his coverage of the Hong Kong handover, and for entertainment programming for co-hosting KTLA’s Rose Parade pre-show.

He has also won awards from the Los Angeles Press Club, including best documentary for KTLA’s “When Disaster Strikes: A Survival Guide” and for talk/public affairs for “Access L.A.” His other honors include APTRA Awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association, including reporter of the year; Golden Mike Awards from the Radio and Television News Association; and the national Americanism in News Media Award. In 2019, Frank Buckley Interviews was nominated for a Los Angeles Press Club National Arts & Entertainment Award.

Frank’s reporting has taken him to nearly every community in Southern California and to many locations across the globe. In March 2011, Frank traveled to Japan for KTLA and reported from Sendai immediately after it was devastated by a tsunami and earthquake. Frank has also reported from London on a terror plot and from Tehran, Iran, on the presidential election.

While at CNN, Frank’s varied assignments ranged from breaking news to politics to long-form enterprise reporting, including the CNN Presents documentary “Carrier at War.” During Operation Iraqi Freedom, Frank was embedded with the U.S. Navy aboard the aircraft carrier USS Constellation in the Persian Gulf. In the weeks following 9/11, he reported from the Pentagon and from warships in the Arabian Sea.

In 2004, Frank participated in CNN’s political coverage, traveling with the John Kerry and John Edwards campaigns. In 2003-2004, he also traveled with President George W. Bush and frequently reported from the White House. Other political reporting assignments have included Hillary Clinton’s New York Senate run and the 2000 presidential election and its aftermath.

His spot news reporting for KTLA, CNN, and in the 1990s for KCAL-TV has included hurricanes in the Caribbean and the Carolinas; the Landers and Northridge earthquakes in California and the devastating earthquake in Kobe, Japan; wildfires in Southern California; the Los Angeles riots, the OJ Simpson case and trial; and the death of John F. Kennedy, Jr. off Martha’s Vineyard.

Prior to KTLA and CNN, Frank reported for Los Angeles station KCAL-TV (1992-1999), WXII-TV in Winston-Salem, N.C., and at KESQ-TV in Palm Springs. He has also written for the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit News. He graduated from USC with a double major in broadcast journalism and history in 1987.

Frank frequently donates his time to community organizations and is a longtime member of the board of JDRF, formerly known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He is a member of the people-to-people diplomacy organization, U.S.-Japan Council, and served on the Japanese American Leadership Delegation to Japan in 2006. Frank is also a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Asian American Journalists Association.

Frank is married and the father of two sons. He is a bogey golfer, a weekly basketball player, and a cyclist who gives it everything he’s got to complete a 100-mile ride every year to raise funds for JDRF to defeat type 1 diabetes.

Justin Willman

Entertainment & Magic

Justin is the star and creator of the hit Netflix original series Magic for Humans. He’s a regular guest on The Tonight Show, Ellen, and Conan. His online videos have logged over a 100 million views. And one time he performed at the White House for the Obama family.

The L.A. Times calls him, “A new breed of comic who’s making magic cool again for grown-ups. ” Playboy dubbed him, “The freshest and funniest magician working today.” Time Out says his live show, “Has to be seen to be disbelieved.”

Justin was born in St. Louis, lives in Los Angeles, and does not own a rabbit.

Leslie Bercovitz

Co-Chair

Leslie, along with her husband Jacob, became involved with JDRF in San Diego more than 20 years ago, shortly after their son Yaniv was diagnosed with T1D at age 9.  “Funding vital research to cure T1D is what inspires us to support JDRF in the hope that this disease becomes a thing of the past.”  She and Jacob have sponsored a table at the San Diego Promise Ball every year since then and were honored at the gala in 2017.  In  2020, Leslie chaired the JDRF San Diego Promise Ball and met the challenge of quickly adapting it to the chapter’s first virtual gala. In 2021, Leslie co-chaired the first combined Southern California virtual gala.

Since 2019, Leslie has been a member of the JDRF San Diego Board of Directors (now the San Diego Community Board of the JDRF Southern California Chapter).

Leslie enjoys spending time with her family, which includes husband Jacob, their son Yaniv, daughters Elise and Ilana, son-in-law Alex, and grandchildren Asher and Zuri.  Her hobbies include painting and yoga.

Julie Hellmers

Co-Chair

Julie and her husband Michael have 3 children: Ryan (25), Brennan (21), and Katherine (19). Katherine was diagnosed with T1D at the age of 4 and Brennan was also diagnosed with type 1 when he was 12.

Julie has been involved with the JDRF Orange County Chapter for 15 years, having served on the Board in various committee leader positions. She has co-chaired the Dream Gala four times and has also been President and a continuing Board Member of the Dream Guild.

Julie enjoys spending time with her family and friends, playing tennis and golf and volunteering for JDRF and the Council on Aging as a senior companion.

Kevin Wehrenberg

Co-Chair

Kevin Wehrenberg recently Executive Produced the physical competition show Cannonball for the USA Network which aired the Summer of 2020.  Earlier that summer the hit show, Floor is Lava, dropped on Netflix which Kevin also Executive Produced.

Kevin has been involved in all the versions of the hit TV Show Fear Factor which was relaunched on MTV in 2017 with the host Ludacris.

Prior to the relaunch of Fear Factor on MTV, Kevin was a Co-Executive Producer on a new competition format TV Show, Hunted, for CBS.

During 2015 Kevin produced the stunt-based series Bullseye for FOX. Before Bullseye Kevin’s longest running show was Wipeout for ABC which he produced for seven seasons. While he was producing Wipeout he also was the Co-Executive Producer on ABC’s 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show and the reboot of Fear Factor 2.0 for NBC.  Kevin worked on the original Fear Factor series, which was a hit NBC show for six seasons.  He started there as the production manager and worked his way up to Producer by the time the show ended in 2006.

Before Kevin started working on stunt-based reality/game shows he worked on many different television shows in Los Angeles, ranging from Unsolved Mysteries to Later with Greg Kinnear.  Kevin started out as a production management intern through the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences internship program, which placed him at NBC Productions just after college.

He currently resides in Burbank, CA with his wife Erin, who is the SVP/Head of Comedy Development for ABC Television, and his two sons Charlie and Henry. Kevin was President of the Los Angeles Chapter of JDRF and board member for many years in honor of his son Charlie, who has Type 1 Diabetes.

Kevin is also a member of The Country School Board of Governors along with a Regent for Providence High School in Burbank, California.

Kevin is an extremely active alumnus with his Alma Mater University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and its Radio/TV/Film program. Kevin was honored by the University of Wisconsin as a Distinguished Alumni in 2015 and Outstanding Young Alumni in 2002.