Lorenzo Carcaterra is an acclaimed American author, well-known for his suspense novels. He has had a successful writing career spanning over twenty years and has written for various segments of fiction, non-fiction, film, and television. Carcaterra is best recognized for his novel "Sleepers," which he claims is autobiographical, although there is much debate about the fact.
Born and raised in New York's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, Carcaterra began his writing career as a copy boy for The New York Daily News in 1976. He worked his way up to entertainment reporter before leaving the paper in 1982. After that, he wrote for several other publications, including People magazine, Picture Week, Entertainment Tonight Magazine, Special Reports Magazine, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Newsday Sunday Magazine, Family Circle, Ladies Home Journal, and Twilight Zone Magazine.
In the late 1980s, Carcaterra turned to television as a Creative Consultant for the syndicated weekly series Cop Talk: Behind the Shield. He then became a Managing Editor for the CBS weekly series Top Cops, which ran for four seasons from 1990 to 1994 and is still in syndication today worldwide. He also worked on a dozen other pilots and wrote and published his first two books, "A Safe Place" and "Sleepers," while at Grosso-Jacobson Productions.
Carcaterra's books have been highly successful, with "Sleepers" becoming a #1 New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback. It has been sold to 35 foreign countries and has sales exceeding 1.8 million copies. The book was made into a feature film in 1996, starring Brad Pitt, Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Bacon, Minnie Driver, and Jason Patric. Carcaterra served as co-producer on the project, which earned in excess of $500 million worldwide in combined box-office, video, DVD, and TV sales.
Carcaterra's first novel, "Apaches," was also a New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback and has been sold in 14 foreign countries. He has since written several other novels, including "Gangster," "Street Boys," "Paradise City," "Chasers," "Midnight Angels," "The Wolf," and "Tin Badges." Carcaterra is also a former writer/producer for Law & Order and has written for National Geographic Traveler, The New York Times Magazine, and Maxim. He currently lives in New York City and is at work on his next novel.