Xander Bennett (born 16 February 1984)
is an Australian screenwriter and author. He is a former

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

script reader, and a resident of Los Angeles. Bennett is best known for his laconic advice about the practice of screenwriting, shared daily in a blog called Screenwriting Tips... You Hack, and for a book of the same name.''Screenwriting tips, you hack''
Focal Press

Early life

Bennett was born and grew up in

Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

. He is the son of Martin and Rebecca Bennett, and the eldest of three boys. He earned a Bachelor of Film and television at

Bond University Bond University is Australia's first private not-for-profit university and is located in Robina, a suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland. Since its founding on 15 May 1989, Bond University has primarily been a teaching-focused higher ed ...

Queensland, Australia ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

in 2004, then attended the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, where he completed a Professional Program in Producing in 2009.

Career

Bennett has written for television, videogames, role-playing games, and comics, and is the author of a graphic novel. He has written a series of blogs, culminating in the one which made him famous, ''Screenwriting Tips... You Hack'', on which he has published a screenwriting tip a day since June 2009. He wrote educational comics for

Pan Macmillan Pan Books is a publishing imprint (trade name), imprint that first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the United Kingdom, British-based Macmillan Publishers, owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of Germany. Pan Books b ...

and worked on ''Ghostees'', a small browser game for BakedOn Entertainment, which hasn't been released yet. He has written tabletop RPG books for The Le Games (''Unorthodox Pirates''), Highmoon Media (''The Song of Roland''), and Dogsoul Publishing. He lived in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

during 2008, where he did some freelance journalism and copywriting, and worked as a quality assurance tester for

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

Vancouver. In 2009 he moved to Los Angeles for a year to attend the

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

Professional Program in Producing. While there he worked as a reader for a minor production company. Bennett administers an online script reading service, Hack Notes. He is managed by Madhouse Entertainment, Los Angeles.

Writing

Blogs

Bennett first published a blog called ''Chained to the Keyboard'' while he was living in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia. It ran from October 2005 to June 2006. That was followed by a blog called ''Childish Things'', which ran from 2007 to early 2009. Neither blog is now available online. In Los Angeles, while working as a reader for a minor production company, and frustrated by the quality of the screenplays he was reading, Bennett started

tweeting Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, ...

his complaints. Someone told him he should put them in a blog, so he moved to publishing ''Screenwriting Tips... You Hack'' as "a snarky diatribe," posting tips once a day on how to make spec scripts better. His first tip read: ::Don't be boring. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T BE BORING. Tape it to your laptop. Tape it to your eyeballs. Don't. Be. Boring.

Franklin Leonard Franklin Leonard is an American film executive best known for founding The Black List, a yearly publication featuring Hollywood's most popular unproduced screenplays. After working as a development executive for Overbrook Entertainment and Uni ...

invited Bennett to join The Black List in September 2011, and the entire ''Screenwriting Tips... You Hack'' blog migrated to that website. On 21 May 2012, Bennett published Tip #1000: ::If you write from the heart, you’ll never run out of ideas. If you aim for masterpieces, at least you’ll learn from the failures. And if you never give up, there's no way you can lose. ::You’ve come this far. Now the future is up to you. ::All you have to do is write it.

Television

Bennett's first job as a writer was on the Australian animated children's show

FARMkids ''Farmkids'' (styled as ''FARMkids'') is an Australian children's computer-animated comedy television series about pampered zoo animals accidentally being shipped to a dude ranch A guest ranch, also known as a dude ranch, is a type of ranch ...

in 2005. During 2010–2011, he worked under contract for Australia's Shine Television Studios.Xander Bennett joins The Black List
His work included post-production on

Dating in the Dark ''Dating in the Dark'' ( nl, Daten in het Donker) is a reality show created in the Netherlands where 3 single men and 3 single women move into a light-tight house getting to know each other and form bonds in total darkness. Format Dating Three me ...

The Biggest Loser ''The Biggest Loser'' is a reality television format which started with the American TV show ''The Biggest Loser'' in 2004. The show centers on overweight and obese contestants attempting to lose the most weight; the winner receives a cash prize. ...

and

Australia's Next Top Model ''Australia's Next Top Model'' is an Australian reality television series which premiered on 11 January 2005 and concluded on 22 November 2016, and was based on Tyra Banks' ''America's Next Top Model''. It was broadcast on the Australian subscr ...

Graphic novel

In 2009, Xander Bennett and Melanie Cook published a graphic novel called ''Cages''. The publisher, Insomnia Publications, ceased trading in 2010 and the status of the novel is now uncertain.

Screenplays

Bennett began writing screenplays in 2004, but has had none produced as yet. In 2010 he developed ''The Colour of Fear'', a feature film, for Rising Swell Productions, a

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

based

production company A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and ...

Screenwriting book

In 2011, on the advice of William H. Akers, Xander Bennett published a book that took the wisdom of his ''Screenwriting Tips... You Hack'' blog and expanded it into ''Screenwriting Tips, You Hack: 150 Practical Pointers for Becoming a Better Screenwriter''. It contains "bite-sized chapters full of funny, insightful, usable advice". According to the publisher, it demonstrates "the differences between film and television structure, how to force yourself to write when youreallydon't want to, and why you probably shouldn't base your first spec script around an alien invasion."

Awards and honors

Xander Bennett won

The West Australian ''The West Australian'' is the only locally edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia. It is owned by Seven West Media (SWM), as is the state's other major newspaper, ''The Sunday Times''. It is the second-oldest continuousl ...

''Young Writer of the Year'' award in 1999. He was awarded the ''Queensland New Filmmakers Award – Most Original Script'' in 2010.Linkedin
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Publications

* Bennett, Xander and Cook, Melanie. ''Cages''. Edinburgh: Insomnia Publications, 2009. * Bennett, Xander. ''Screenwriting tips, you hack: 150 practical pointers for becoming a better screenwriter''. Oxford: Elsevier Inc, 2011. ISBN 978-0-240-81824-5

Personal life

Bennett is married to Megan Lee Moran (2014–).