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. 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
, a how-to guide for aspiring actors published in 1997 and co-authored by Ellie Kanner, casting director of the television series Friends. Bens ventured into fiction writing shortly thereafter and his short works have been published in Cemetery Dance, Chick Flicks, HeavyGlow, Twisted Tongue, Velvet Mafia: Dangerous Queer Fiction
, Outsider Ink
and Dark Discoveries''. He also has contributed to Dark Scribe Magazine's Roundtable discussions, 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
and short story Me Ka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou.
His first novel Kelland'' was published by Casperian Books on September 1, 2009, and has drawn largely favorable reviews with the author's style being compared to
Stephen King,
Michael Cunningham and the better films of
M. Night Shyamalan. ==Bibliography==