Carlton Holder

Carlton grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn. He came to the film profession from a very unusual path. After college, where he was a literary major and competitive gymnast, Carlton moved out to Los Angeles and began a career as a Hollywood movie stuntman; later segueing into stunt coordinating and second unit directing.

Carlton read scripts on the movie sets he worked on and decided to try his hand at it. Carlton's first script "Bridge Of Dragons" sold to Millennium Films and became an HBO World Premiere movie starring Dolph Lundgren ("Rocky IV," "Expendables"). The first TV pilot Carlton wrote, "This Underworld," was packaged by CAA and picked up by Tribune Entertainment who ordered a pilot presentation starring Talisa Soto (James Bond's "License To Kill"). Carlton co-produced and co-directed the presentation with John Leekley ("Spawn: The Animated Series"). Later, Carlton wrote the crime action film "El Padrino," starring Jennifer Tilly and Faye Dunaway. Carlton has also written for Saban Entertainment, as well as serving as creative consultant on a children's series that was in development there for Fox Kids TV.

Carlton directed the Proof of Concept for his TV series "Teenage Wasteland," which was in development with producer Benedict Carver at EOne and later producer Arnold Rifkin (former president of the William Morris Agency) at Cheyenne Enterprises with pilot director Peter O'Fallon ("Eureka" series) attached to helm and actor Danny Glover providing voiceover narration. Carlton also second unit directed the film "Bravo" for Carlos Gallardo (Producer of "El Mariachi" and "Once Upon A Time in Mexico"). In addition to that, Carlton second unit directed 50 episodes of the Per-Per-View series "Fight Zone" for producer Brad Fuller, now co-owner of Platinum Dunes with Michael Bay. For personal reasons, Carlton stepped away from the industry for over ten years. Now, refocused, Carlton is back with a new slate of projects. Carlton directed the short film "Pretty Dark Horses," which won the Sweden Short Film Festival and was semi-finalist in several other competitions. He was recently hired to write and direct the short film "Forgotten Word" in Manchester, England, starring Tom Lister ("Emmerdale" series) and Dean Sullivan ("Brookside" series). Carlton also wrote the upcoming graphic novel "The Curse Of Monte Cristo" a re-imagining of the classic as a diverse horror tale. It was represented by Trident Media Group and sold to a major publisher.