Biography
A fighter pilot’s daughter, Carolyn Saunders grew up in the air force. Thirty-one houses later, she’s settled in London, but she can still pack a suitcase at Mach 2, and frequently writes about identity and home. Her feature sci-fi script Island West was selected for the 2020 Meryl Streep/Nicole Kidman-supported Writer’s Lab. Her short On Island West, set in the same world, was a 2020 Challenge Alexa winner, sponsored by ARRI and Directors UK. Starring Tallulah Evans (White Lines), it wrapped in Cornwall as the UK locked down, and is in post-production. Carolyn wrote Amazon’s feminist take on Ted Bundy, the critically acclaimed series Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer. Her period drama Starfighter Baby features much nicer people and was shortlisted for the 2020 Sundance Screenwriter Lab. Her directorial debut, The Wasting, played to sold-out theatres in 2017 and won Best Feature at Vittorio Veneto, one of Italy’s top festivals for youth. It had a Canadian theatrical release and is on Amazon Prime. Carolyn story-edited the 2019 Richard Dreyfuss feature Astronaut, wrote episodes of the comedy webseries Tokens and spent 13 years analysing scripts for the Harold Greenberg Fund, Canada’s biggest private film fund. She has written numerous doc series including Mighty Ships and Forensic Factor for Discovery. In 2016, Carolyn was selected for Canada’s prestigious Women in the Director’s Chair program. She now does double duty, directing projects she has written, as well as taking on films by other writers.
