Khalil Benkirane graduated in Film studies at the San Francisco State University in 1995. He was appointed Artistic Director and then Executive Director of The Arab Film Festival, Cinemayaat, in San Francisco from 1998 to 2002. He moved to Morocco where he directed and produced his first feature documentary, The White Thread. Khalil is a founding member of The Cinemathèque de Tanger (CdT) and a board member of Young Arab Theater Fund (YATF). In 2008, Khalil relocated to Qatar where he produced documentary and narrative films for Al Jazeera Children Channel.
In early 2011 he joined the Doha Film Institute where he heads the Grants Programme.