BENNETT STEIN -- DIRECTOR AND SCREENWRITER

Having gotten his start in the off-Broadway/off-Hollywood theatre scene, first as actor, then stage director, Bennett now goes after film subjects that are off kilter, suspenseful, and noirish, but also comedic and pithy.

In 2008 he directed DIVIDED WE STAND, his debut feature starring Jeremy London, Anne Bedian, Aki Avni and Sienna Goines. DIVIDED pits a special ops officer against his LA-based sister and her left leaning radio commentator fiancé all to learn there is more than just one way to serve one's country.

His short films span the likes of film fest cult hit MOTEL JERUSALEM (director/writer), a tale of an undercover FBI agent in the desert, who out of the blue is stricken with the Jerusalem Syndrome in the middle of a perilous sting operation...

To NICKEL FOR A PEEP SHOW (director/co-writer), a stylized erotic black comedy about a prim, Victorian-era obsessed governess/tutor who is led astray by her deviant teenage wards. Think Mary Poppins meets Mulholland Drive.

Then there’s SMOKING, IT’S STILL COOL (director/writer), a mock PSA. This cult fave was designed to ruffle the feathers of almost everybody except those with a dark sense of humor. SMOKING also played several fests in addition to an oncologists’ convention at St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank.

Bennett Stein learned the bulk of his skills by apprenticing with film and short form directors such as Matt Mahurin, Jeff Stein, Tamra Davis, the two time Academy-Award winning actor/director Kevin Spacey and the Oscar-winning actor William Hurt.

As a young man, Bennett got to regularly plug trail-blazing film director Elia Kazan with all manner of directing technique queries as his father was editor of four of Kazan’s novels over a decade.

Bennett’s filmmaking creed can be summed up in that quip from an old school mystery writer: “There’s only one story, nothing is what it seems.”

Bennett welcomes work as a director for hire. But he is also a screenwriter, with writing credits on MTV, Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network. He is in development with his Beatnik noir screenplay, BURN THE ROAD.