A playwright, television writer, and producer, Carpenter created the 2016 miniseries "11.22.63" for Bad Robot and Hulu from Stephen King's bestselling novel. "11.22.63" premiered at the Sundance Festival, was nominated for a Writers Guild Award, and won the Saturn Award for best limited series.

Prior to "11.22.63," she wrote and co-executive-produced all five seasons of the Peabody Award-Winning series Friday Night Lights. She was a Consulting Producer for HBO's Westworld and a Co-Executive Producer for Parenthood. In 2013 she was the Executive Producer/Showrunner for the Sundance Channel drama series The Red Road.

Carpenter's plays have been produced by Steppenwolf, the Public Theater, the Alley Theatre, La Jolla Rep, Berkeley Repertory Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and many other theaters across the country. She has written several songs for film (Basmati Blues; Dear Dumb Diary) and has adapted Freaky Friday as a movie musical for the Disney Channel, airing in 2018. Most recently, she was awarded the Princess Grace Statue.

Awards: a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Jerome Fellowship, a McKnight Grant, the Princess Grace Award, the Kesselring Prize, and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. WGA and Emmy nominations for Friday Night Lights. Her plays Fall, Up and The Faculty Room are published by Samuel French.

An alumnae of New Dramatists, Carpenter received her BA and MFA from Brown University. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Chris Harrison, and their children, Rita and Henry.