Carol Wolf was born in Chicago, and lived in Zurich and Amsterdam before her family settled in Claremont, California. She earned a full scholarship to Mills College where she graduated with a B.A. in History, and then earned an MFA in Playwriting from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University as a Levin Scholar.

Her first professional production was a showcase of her play, THE TERRIBLE EXPERIMENT OF JONATHAN FISH, at the Westbeth Theater in New York City. Carol then moved to Hartford, Connecticut, and joined a theater company interested in producing her plays. There, Carol supported herself as a temporary typist, while writing and overseeing productions of her work, including THE BOSS'S WIFE (later EDDIE AND MOLLY'S GARDEN), A BURGLAR IN THE HOUSE, DAY/BLACKNIGHT/MORNING, and JACALYN. In the meantime, Carol also earned a brown belt in Uechi-rhu karate, and became a knight in the Society for Creative Anachronism.

She then moved to Los Angeles where she supported herself as a short and long-term substitute teacher. She pursued her studies as a playwright by getting permission to watch rehearsals at the
Grove Shakespeare Festival, and subsequently wrote the one-man show MONSIEUR SHAHERAZAD (now THE THOUSANDTH NIGHT for actor Ron Campbell. THE THOUSANDTH NIGHT won an L.A. Drama Critic's Circle Award, was on the Hit List at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and won the London Fringe First Award for Best One-Person Play. A subsequent draft was produced at the American Stage Company in New Jersey and then after significant reworking THE THOUSANDTH NIGHT opened at the Delaware Repertory Theater, where it was nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn prize in playwriting. THE THOUSANDTH NIGHT has since been produced in eleven states and five countries; in 1998 it was the only play from the United States, (together with nine plays from around the world) to be invited to the Habimah Internetto, the 50th Anniversary of the Nation of Israel. Its most recent productions were in Washington, D.C., and in Sydney, Australia in 2002.

In Los Angeles, Carol took classes in screenplay writing and in television directing at U.C.L.A., and taught playwriting with the Playwrights Project, where an entire class of her middle-school
students from Pico Rivera (over half of whom had never been inside a theater before) won a special award in a playwriting contest from the Blank Theater Company of Hollywood, for the strength and diversity of their plays, and four of their entries placed in the contest (the next-oldest winner was a junior in high school).

Carol Wolf subsequently moved to San Jose for that oldest of reasons; she was heavily bribed by her boyfriend, an animator in the video game industry. Here she taught playwriting first for the UC Santa Cruz Extension Program, and subsequently (and currently) for Foothill College. About 20% of her students win playwriting contests, or earn productions or awards after taking her class. Carol founded the Silicon Valley Playwrights Association, a group that provides readings and workshop productions for member playwrights. In August, 2003, seven plays written by her students receiveD their premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, produced by the SVPA
and the Foothill College Theatre Conservatory.

In San Jose, Carol taught Fourth Grade at Trace Elementary, the magnet performing arts elementary school. She subsequently taught English and History, Math and Computer Skills, at Andrew Hill High School. Then, driven by ballooning housing prices, she and her (now) husband built a house in the Sierra Foothills. She teaches playwriting at Foothill College both in person and online and writes scripts for video game companies, while her husband telecommutes, and together they are raising a border collie puppy.

Her other plays include DAUGHTER OF FRANCE, THE PLACE IN THE WOODS, DR. ROWAN, THE DEMON, and LOVE, and SOLSTICE. Her other work includes THE MERCILESS MANUAL OF BEGINNING, INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED PLAYWRITING, COYOTE RUN, MOON WOLF AND THE DEMON, and the screenplay version of THE THOUSANDTH NIGHT.