Amanda Elyot

Also, Leslie Carroll

I was born and raised in New York City, attended the Fieldston School in Riverdale, and received my Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University. I began writing novels in 1998 while I was working three survival jobs simultaneously and struggling to have a career as a working actress. Over the years I slogged away in dreary day jobs in such diverse fields as politics, advertising, public relations, law, and journalism. Finally, in 2003 I was able to become a fulltime author, and I’m still acting professionally as long as the script, the role, and the talent of the people involved are feeding my soul.

My first novel was published in March, 2002. To date I have had seven works of contemporary women’s fiction published under my own name. I have also published four works of historical fiction under the pen name Amanda Elyot.

In June, 2008, I’ll make my nonfiction debut with a book about the sex lives of the English sovereigns, titled ROYAL AFFAIRS: A Lusty Romp Through the Extramarital Adventures that Rocked the British Monarchy.

As Leslie Sara Carroll, I have played virgins, vixens, and villainesses on the in New York stage and in regional theatre and have appeared in commercials, on voiceovers and talking books, and daytime dramas. My classical repertoire includes the leading ladies of Shakespeare, Molière, Coward, Wilde, and a staggering number of Shavian heroines. Not merely confining my performances to the canons of dead playwrights, I am extremely proud to have had the opportunity to read and perform new plays by Meir Z. Ribalow, Arthur Giron, Cassandra Medley, James McLure, Jack Heifner, Pulitzer Prize winner N. Scott Momaday, and National Book Award winner Denis Johnson, among others, as part of two play-development units: New River Dramatists in Healing Springs, NC, and the Playwrights Workshop, at The Players, a renowned theatre and literary social club on New York's Gramercy Park. I am a third-generation member of The Players.

Under the auspices of Survivor Productions, a not-for-profit professional theatre company that I founded in 1989, I produced several seasons of "neglected" plays of the 19th century. I am also the author of three stage adaptations of 19th century/early 20th century English novels: Ivanhoe, The Prisoner of Zenda, and The Scarlet Pimpernel. The first two plays received successful professional productions in New York City; Zenda was a finalist at the Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival. Additionally, I dramatized The Diaries of Adam and Eve, based upon the humorous writing of Mark Twain, which received its premiere at The Players club (of which Twain was a founding member).

Among many other published journalistic pieces, I have written articles on intellectual property rights as they affect directors and dramaturgs, "How to Start a Non-Profit Theatre Company," and "How to Build and Maintain an Audience," for Back Stage, New York's leading trade paper for the Theatre professional, where, as Associate Editor, I wrote and edited theatre industry news and features. I am a member of the Authors Guild and the national chapter of Romance Writers of America.

After spending decades surrounded by hundreds of books, needlework, family mementos, and a plethora of romantic pre-Raphaelite prints in a rambling pre-war apartment I once shared with her grandmother, I moved uptown and now live with my husband on Manhattan's Upper West Side. With Scott by my side, a washer/dryer, dishwasher, and a walk-in closet—I’m in heaven!