Michel Benita was born in Algiers on July 29, 1954. According to AllMusic he began his musical studies in Algeria as a guitarist, drawn to folk music and to Bert Jansch, and moved to the double bass when jazz took hold of him. A French citizen, he has built his career in France since 1981, and AllMusic describes him as a Paris-based bassist, composer and bandleader.

His first studio work, from 1977 to 1979, was with the jazz-rock and electronic quartet Patric, on whose album Bestiari he plays bass guitar, double bass, guitar and vocals. He settled in Paris in 1981 and was soon on records by Doudou Gouirand, Antoine Hervé and Marc Ducret. His own account of those years is a school of clubs and one-night stands, where American expatriates such as Lee Konitz and Archie Shepp shared bandstands with European players including Daniel Humair, Bobo Stenson and Enrico Pieranunzi. That reputation put him in the first Orchestre National de Jazz, directed by François Jeanneau in 1986, and in Jeanneau's quartet for Taxi Way (1988). In 1987 he recorded La Théorie du pilier with Ducret and the drummer Aaron Scott.

Benita made his debut as a leader with Preferences (Label Bleu, 1990), with the saxophonist Dewey Redman, the pianist Rita Marcotulli and the drummer Aldo Romano, and followed it with Soul (1993) with the same quartet. Romano became a close partner from 1995, notably in the quartet Palatino with the trumpeter Paolo Fresu and the trombonist Glenn Ferris, which made Palatino (1995), Tempo (1998) and Chap.3 (2001). In 1999 he formed the trio ELB with the drummer Peter Erskine and the guitarist Nguyên Lê, who had invited him to play on Tales from Viêt-Nam (ACT, 1996). The trio made E_L_B for ACT, recorded in Oslo in October 2000, and returned with Dream Flight in 2008. His 1999 album Lower the Walls has the saxophonist Andy Sheppard and the guitarist Sylvain Luc.

In 2001 he joined Erik Truffaz's band for Mantis on Blue Note, and he is on the trumpeter's Saloua (2005) and Face-à-face (2006) as well. His electronic album Drastic (2005), with the oud player Dhafer Youssef and the trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær among the guests, was the first to feature his own songs and singing, and Ramblin' (2008), a duo with the guitarist Manu Codjia, reflected his interest in country, bluegrass and folk music. Since 1996 he has also been the composer for the designer Hilton McConnico, writing music for exhibitions and fashion presentations for Hermès in France and Japan, and in 2009 he composed the score for Jean Achache's film Un soir au club, adapted from Christian Gailly's novel. In 2013 he recorded Thrill Box with the accordionist Vincent Peirani and the pianist Michael Wollny.

In 2010 he formed Ethics, a quintet with the koto player Mieko Miyazaki, the Norwegian guitarist Eivind Aarset, the Swiss trumpeter Matthieu Michel and the drummer Philippe Garcia. His ECM years began in 2012 with Trio Libero, in Sheppard's trio with the drummer Sebastian Rochford, and he stayed in Sheppard's quartet for Surrounded by Sea (2015) and Romaria (2018). Ethics made its ECM debut with River Silver (2016), recorded in Lugano with Manfred Eicher producing, and Benita followed it with a quartet record, Looking at Sounds (2020), with Michel, the pianist Jozef Dumoulin and Garcia. He was named an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by decree of July 17, 2015. In 2026 he is on Salt Catchers (ECM), a trio record with Sheppard and Marcotulli released on September 11, and on the violinist Adam Bałdych's Endless for ACT.

AllMusic describes Benita as a bassist known for a nearly poetic light touch, melodic compositions and exotic arrangements, and as an experimentalist with a keen ear for rich, detailed harmony; it files him under the styles Chamber Jazz, Folk Jazz and Modern Creative, and his chamber-leaning side is why the profile carries that tag alongside Post-Bop. His own biography traces his sound to Scott LaFaro for finesse, Charlie Haden for simplicity and Dave Holland for steadiness, and to Nordic bassists such as Arild Andersen, Palle Danielsson and Anders Jormin.

His records move between acoustic quartet and trio dates (Preferences, Trio Libero, Salt Catchers) and projects built on electronics and other traditions: the laptop and Fender Rhodes textures of Looking at Sounds, the koto of Ethics, the songs and programming of Drastic. Alongside his own bands he is a first-call sideman, and AllMusic credits him with leading or co-leading more than 25 albums.