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Paul G. Bens Jr. | |
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| Born | 1964 (age 60–61) Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Covington Latin School Thomas More College |
Paul G. Bens Jr. (born 1964) is an American writer and former independent film and television casting director. [1] [2]
Bens was born in 1964, in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, [3] a small suburb in the greater Cincinnati, Ohio area. Bens is the youngest of four children and the only boy [4] born to Paul and Judith Bens. His early education was at the college preparatory Covington Latin School and he graduated from Thomas More College in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, with a degree in Theater Arts. He relocated to Los Angeles in 1986.
Bens' early career was a casting assistant on low-budget feature films such as Martians Go Home and Trip to Spirit Island. Later, he moved into the position of casting associate on the television series Night Court , Nurses , and Stand by Your Man . [3] As a casting director, Bens and his partner Pat Melton contributed to the FOX series Likely Suspects and Ned & Stacey , as well as the series Malcolm & Eddie on UPN. His last casting position was for the FOX network's Murder in Small Town X , for which he was responsible for the casting of actors in the fictional murder mystery reality show. He served as producer for the film hundred percent, [5] a feature film with an Asian American cast which featured Garrett Wang from Star Trek: Voyager , Tamlyn Tomita, Dustin Nguyen from 21 Jump Street and Keiko Agena from Gilmore Girls .
An openly gay author, Bens' first foray into writing came as co-author of Next! And Actor's Guide to Auditioning, [6] a how-to guide for aspiring actors published in 1997 and co-authored by Ellie Kanner, casting director of the television series Friends . [7] Bens ventured into fiction writing shortly thereafter and his short works have been published in Cemetery Dance, [8] Chick Flicks, HeavyGlow, Twisted Tongue, Velvet Mafia: Dangerous Queer Fiction, [9] Outsider Ink [10] and Dark Discoveries. [11] He also has contributed to Dark Scribe Magazine's Roundtable discussions, [12] moderating an in-depth interview with five leading voices in Queer Horror fiction.
Although Bens' fiction tends to examine the darker side of man, he has also contributed to the gay erotica / gay romance genres with his Hawaiiana-based novella Mahape a ale Wala'au [13] and short story Me Ka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou. [14] His first novel Kelland [15] was published by Casperian Books on September 1, 2009, [16] and has drawn largely favorable reviews [17] with the author's style being compared to Stephen King, [18] Michael Cunningham [19] and the better films of M. Night Shyamalan. [20]
Black Quill Award 2010: Best Small Press Chill (Editors' Choice) [21] for the novel Kelland