[1] Benni has written many successful novels and anthologies, among which are Bar Sport, Elianto, Terra!, La compagnia dei celestini, Baol, Comici spaventati guerrieri, Saltatempo, Margherita Dolcevita and Il bar sotto il mare.

He has also worked with the weekly magazines L'espresso and Panorama, and with the satirical Cuore and Tango, the monthly magazines Linus and Il Mago (where he began and published in installments part of Bar Sport), and the newspapers La Repubblica and il manifesto.

In 1989, with Umberto Angelucci, Benni directed the film Musica per vecchi animali, adapted from his book Comici spaventati guerrieri, with the actors Dario Fo, Paolo Rossi, and Viola Simoncioni.

Two years before that he was also the screenwriter of another film, Topo Galileo by Francesco Laudadio, starring his friend Beppe Grillo and with music by Fabrizio De André and Mauro Pagani.

[2] In January and February 2010, he presented the event Bennac, a meeting between himself and the French writer Daniel Pennac.