About
Ben Carter Olcott was most recently a Writers’ Assistant on the true crime series Candy (starring Jessica Biel and Melanie Lynskey). He is currently the Creative Assistant to Robin Veith (Mad Men, The Act).
Ben’s true crime pilot Fairy Tale in Red was a finalist in ScreenCraft’s Public Domain and True Stories Contest. He has additionally been a finalist in Southern California and Geneva International Science in Screenwriting contests and has placed in numerous others.
His most recent fiction has been a top-50 finalist in the Launch Pad Prose Competition and published in Showcase. His stories have been a finalist in two Glimmer Train short story contests.
His poetry was awarded Sharkpack Poetry Review's Prospero Prize and was nominated for Pushchart and Best of the Net anthologies.
His writing has appeared in Showcase, Hypocrite Reader, Sharkpack Poetry Review, KGB Bar Literary Magazine, Enclave, and Three Percent.
Ben was formerly the moderator of the Coyotes Literary Fiction book club at Skylight Books in Los Angeles and the Managing Editor of KGB Bar Literary Magazine.
Writing.
“Ben Carter Olcott is a New Jersey-born writer whose interest in storytelling brought him from the New York City publishing world to TV writing. He is not a stranger to disruption - as a millennial who grew up in post-9/11 America, he’s always been aware of the tremors that have marked the 21st century. An interest in intimate epics and character-driven stories about American history led to his position as a Writer’s and Showrunner’s Assistant on HULU’s upcoming series CANDY, and in his own writing, he seamlessly infuses experiences of trauma under the duress of extraordinary global circumstances."
Namrata, Coverfly Writer Development Team
“Ben Carter Olcott probes what it means to be at once steadfast and illusory, in small ways channeling Borges, ruminating on the individual and the city. Clean, succinct prose delivers his message … [his] pieces are thinking pieces as well as feeling pieces. They work in different ways, with different subject matter to yet pry into the who and why of us, people, in the now, certainly, but across time as well.”
Showcase Editorial Staff, “The Chessman”
“Olcott’s poems have a whiff of Kafka, a bemused cerebralism, and refuse to barter language’s diamond hardness for legibility.”
Joseph Spece, Editor-in-Chief of Sharkpack Annual, Propsero Prize Announcement
Writing
Fairy Tale in Red (true crime pilot)
Two teenagers run off into the New Jersey night, beginning an odyssey that steadily reveals just why they've fled their pleasant, suburban homes.
Finalist, ScreenCraft True Story & Public Domain Competition 2023
Flowers of Evil (historical civil war drama pilot)
In 1860s Boston, a bankrupt aristocrat attempts to gamble his way out of serious debts, while the heiress of a wealthy industrialist devises an escape from an arranged marriage. Their fates intertwine as the Civil War dawns over America.
Top-10 Finalist, Southern California Screenplay Contest 2023
Quarterfinalist, Boston Screenplay Contest 2023
The Heat (sci-fi climate change pilot)
In a climate change-destabilized near future, a young, idealistic climate refugee seeks purpose in the ranks of Aquarius, a violent “eco-cult.”
Finalist, Geneva International Science in Fiction Screenplay Awards 2022
Semifinalist, ScreenCraft Sci-Fi & Fantasy Screenwriting Competition 2022
Second Rounder, Launch Pad Pilot Competition 8th Annual 2022
Quarterfinalist, WeScreenplay TV Lab 2023
Quarterfinalist, WeScreenplay TV Lab 2022
Quarterfinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Summer 2022
Semifinalist, So Cal Screenplay Competition - The Southern California Screenplay Competition 2020
Waterloo (short story)
Family and class loyalties are tested when the teenage son of a strike leader is manipulated into accepting a management role at the very company his father is striking against.
Top-50 finalist, 7th Annual Launch Pad Prose Competition 2023
The Showrunner (comedy pilot)
A Hollywood assistant thinks he's ready for the big time. But when his wish for fame is mysteriously fulfilled, he finds success isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Quarterfinalist, Screencraft Comedy Competition 2022
Semifinalist, Emerging Screenwriters Comedy Screenplay Contest 2022