My writing life has, by both necessity and design, become a writing, producing, and directing career, including the formation of Babyhead Productions in 1997 with my partner in crime in both life and business, Ronald Shore.

Professionally, I dove into the show biz immediately upon graduating high school a year early in Texas and moving to New York at the age of 17. Young. Stupid. Pretty. I fought mightily to get myself established in the bowels of the entertainment industry as a performer, gradually clawing my way up somewhere below the middle. Best job? Playing Magaldi a couple of times in productions of Evita. Sometimes youngish girls came backstage to see if my chest hair was real. Never mind that my sights were usually set on sleeping with the guys playing "Che"or"Peron."

Somewhere around the early 90s I started writing, and my first play, The Liquidation of Granny Peterman, was produced in Los Angeles. The L. A. Times said, "Samuel Bernstein's insights into what keeps families together are as rich as a holiday pudding." It was thrilling to get a great review and to have the run make money, but the idea that I had any notion whatsoever of what might keep a family together was and is completely insane.

Always hoping to appeal to the widest audience possible, I decided my first movie would be about child molestation. While I was writing and rewriting that script and becoming bicoastal-curious I got an opportunity to work on my first book, a photo-anthology called Uncommon Heroes that won a Stonewall Book Award from the American Library Association in 1996. I tied with Dorothy Allison – an amazing writer.

The child sex abuse movie became Silent Lies. I had to figure out how to do just about every job a person can do on-set while we were shooting, and when Paramount gave us the chance to work free on the lot during post-production if we would cut on film, I even learned how to operate the now completely antiquated flat bed. Miraculously, we sold the movie, got distribution, made a little money, and created our own teeny tiny little stir on the festival circuit, opening at Montreal in 1996 and being wined and dined through six more festivals before the end of 1997.

Even though our press materials said otherwise, I was always referred to in the papers as an incest survivor. I started thinking that was pretty funny. The Q and A sessions felt a lot like being on daytime television - but in a good way.

About a million pitch meetings later, with the usual number of scripts for hire now in turnaround, I have a few more things to show for myself: In 2002 my film Bobbie's Girl premiered on Showtime. It's your basic lesbian cancer adoption comedy with music, starring Bernadette Peters, Rachel Ward, and Jonathan Silverman. The kid in the movie was played by a wonderful little Brit who is now the hardest working man in show business (Love Actually, Nanny McPhee), Thomas Sangster. Bernadette got an Emmy nomination which still makes me thrilled to no end, and we got a G.L.A.A.D. nomination and a citation from The Advocate as one of the top ten television events of the year.

Like every other writer in town I get hired to do a lot of stuff that never gets made. In between assignments I started directing. Rather unsurprisingly while doing Sally B. and Icing on the Cake. I found that I liked being in charge. Go figure. I've also written for episodic television on Judging Amy in its very last season, and for the ABC/Disney show W.i.t.c.h.

Just out is my new book MR. CONFIDENTIAL - The Man, His Magazine & The Movieland Massacre That Changed Hollywood Forever. All sorts of talks about turning into a movie or a television series or a Broadway musical, or, hell, I don't know, maybe all three, are under way.

I'm also writing and directing Kill Your Inner Child for Hearst Entertainment, based on my blog, which will soon be broadcast as short, Curb Your Enthusiasm-style episodes on mobile phones and websites near you.

Awards

Uncommon Heroes - American Library Association's Stonewall Book Award

Bobbie's Girl - Emmy nomination Bernadette Peters, G.L.A.A.D. Award nomination, Top Ten Television Events of the Year from The Advocate.

Silent Lies - Silver Medal at Worldfest Charleston, Bronze Award at the Houston International Film Festival