Bennett attended Wayne State University, and then the University of Michigan in the early 1980s, as a musical theatre major. She worked as an actress, doing national musical tours, regional theatre productions including Mark Medoff'sWhen You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? and a well-reviewed turn in the off-Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams'Twenty-Seven Wagons Full of Cotton. She headed her own improv comedy trio, Zaniac, and performed as a vocalist, singing backup for John Mellencamp and in her play, Honk Tonk Angels.
Bennett lives in Los Angeles with her son. Her pseudonyms are C.J. Anders and Carrie Austen. For many years, she wrote frequently with Jeff Gottesfeld, with whom she shared the Zoey Dean pseudonym.[1] She and Gottesfeld are divorced.
