Princess Grace Statue Award, 2017

Princess Grace Award
Playwriting Fellowship, 1997

Bridget Carpenter writes plays, television, and film.

Ms. Carpenter’s television writing includes all five seasons of the Peabody Award-winning Friday Night Lights, where she was Co-Executive Producer for seasons four and five.  She has received four nominations from the Writers Guild of America for ‘Best Dramatic Series’ for Friday Night Lights. In its final season, Friday Night Lights won Emmys for Best Teleplay and Best Actor, and was nominated for Best Drama.

Ms. Carpenter created the 2016 miniseries 11.22.63 for Hulu and Bad Robot from Stephen King’s bestselling novel. 11.22.63 premiered at the 2016 Sundance Festival, has been nominated for a WGA Award for Long Form Drama, and remains the most-watched original series created for Hulu.  It is also the winner of the 2016 Cameraimage International Festival for Cinematography.  Ms. Carpenter was the Showrunner and Executive Producer for Sundance TV’s The Red Road, and a Consulting Producer for HBO’s Westworld.

Ms. Carpenter’s episode of Friday Night Lights “I Can’t” received widespread critical acclaim from The New York Times, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, and Entertainment Weekly. In 2011, “I Can’t” was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences as one of eight shows that exemplify “television with a conscience.” As Co-Executive Producer for NBC’s Parenthood, her episode “Qualities and Difficulties” was awarded a Sentinel for Health award from the Writers Guild of America and Hollywood Health & Society.

Ms. Carpenter has written the musical Freaky Friday for Disney, which received its world premiere at Washington DC’s Signature Theatre. Freaky Friday is currently touring the country. Her other plays have been seen at Steppenwolf, The Public Theater, Berkeley Repertory Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Trinity Rep, Theatre de la Jeune Leune, the Atlantic Theater, Shakespeare & Company, Arena Stage, the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Woolly Mammoth, the Mark Taper Forum, and numerous other theaters across the country. She has been the subject of profiles in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and American Theatre Magazine.

Awards and Prizes: a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Princess Grace Award, the Kesselring Prize, and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.  Residencies include: two NEA Playwriting Fellowships, two Jerome Fellowships, a Ford Foundation Grant, and a writing residency with London’s National Theatre.  Her plays Fall, The Faculty Room, and Up are all published by Samuel French.

Ms. Carpenter is an alumnae of New Dramatists.  She holds an M.F.A. from Brown University, and has taught theater in elementary school, high school, college, and prison.