Biography

Writer-Director Carolyn Saunders is the 2022 winner of the Writers Guild of Canada’s Sondra Kelly Award, and an Academy Nicholl Fellowship quarterfinalist in 2021. She was selected for the Meryl Streep/Nicole Kidman Writer’s Lab and her sci-fi feature script Island West is on Coverfly’s Red List, in the Top 1% of nearly 80,000 screenplays. Three times shortlisted for the Sundance Development Track with series and feature projects, Carolyn works across genres. She co-wrote Amazon’s feminist take on Ted Bundy, the critically acclaimed series Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer, and is director/writer of the Cold War feature doc Starfighter Baby, currently in development with White Pine Pictures’ Emmy-winning producer Peter Raymont.

Carolyn’s dystopian short On Island West won the Directors UK Challenge Alexa, was shot in Cornwall during lockdown and is currently on the festival circuit. Her short drama Sundown, about a mixed race indigenous soldier disconnected from his identity, debuted at the 2021 Carmarthen Bay Film Festival.

In 2017, Carolyn made her directorial debut with the microbudget thriller The Wasting. It played to sold-out theatres, winning multiple festival awards, followed by a Canadian theatrical release and distribution in six countries.

Carolyn's co-written female-led scifi thriller series pilot Invisible was a finalist at The Writers Lab UK and shortlisted for the 2022 Script21 Drama Series Competition. She story-edited the 2019 Richard Dreyfuss-starring Astronaut and wrote episodes of the Canadian Screen Award winning comedy webseries Tokens. She has written and creative produced multiple series for Discovery, History Channel, etc A dual Canadian-UK citizen based in London, Carolyn is an alumna of the 2021 Directors UK Inspire Mentoring scheme and Canada’s Women in the Director’s Chair. She sits on the Board of Directors UK.


 
 

Credits

Wasting, The 1 episode View
Series   Role Year
-   Director 2016

Other Credits

Sundown Short Film View
Description Year
In a dystopian Canada, a rootless Métis/Roma soldier dives into an old family secret to conquer his greatest challenge 2019
On Island West short film View
Description Year
In a dystopian UK flooded by climate change into an archipelago, Arya, 18, is raised as a militant racist on an isolated island. When a persecuted Native American stranger arrives, Arya sees the world through his eyes, igniting a longing for freedom and racial justice that clashes with her bond to home. When he discovers the safe haven he seeks is racist, both must decide what freedom is worth. 2021

Non-Directorial Credits

Fatal Vows View
Description
Doc series, Writer of S06E06.
Outlaw Tech View
Description
6 x 60 doc series, Writer of multiple episodes
A Sicilian Dream View
Description
Feature doc, Writer
Mighty Ships View
Description
6 x 60 (multiple seasons) Doc series for Discovery. Series writer, seasons 1 -2
Tokens View
Description
Comedy web series, Writer
Astronaut View
Description
Feature film, starring Richard Dreyfuss. Story Editor
Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer View
Description
Writer, 5 x60 documentary series for Amazon about Ted Bundy’s crimes from a female perspective — uncovering the disturbing and profound way in which Bundy’s pathological hatred of women collided with the culture wars and feminist movement of the 1970s.

Awards

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