Brian Olsen is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Orange Hanky Productions, for which he has directed Kevin Podgorski's original plays F*ck Me B*at Me L*veMe, Mary Christmas, and Day of the Dad. Other credits on original work include Tom Smith's End of the Meal (manhattan theatre source), Carla Ching's Aching For You (Love Creek Productions) and Aurin Squire's Art Gallery (New York Comedy Club). Other directing credits include Don't Dress for Dinner (The Weathervane Playhouse), The Merry Wives of Windsor and Much Ado About Nothing (Gorilla Rep), The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) (The Washington Shakespeare Festival), The Mousetrap and Camelot (The Saxtons River Playhouse), and a bilingual national tour of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme for the National Theater for Arts & Education.

He assistant directed the world premiere of Sam Shepard's The God of Hell, directed by Lou Jacob and starring Tim Roth and Randy Quaid, as well as a production of Jason Milligan's Lullaby, directed by Louise Lasser. He has a BA in Drama from Stonehill College in Massachusetts, studied at the National Shakespeare Conservatory in New York, and has an MFA in Directing from the New School.