Shan Benson attended St Patrick's College, Melbourne, as a scholarship student, but left school early to join the photographic and cinematographic branch of the Department of Commerce and Agriculture. During World War II, he served in Papua New Guinea; after demobbing, he wrote radio dramas and made films for the Commonwealth Film Unit and the Department of Foreign Affairs, creating numerous documentaries for television and film, especially in the post-war period: titles include Farming for the Future (1949) and Bee-keeping on the Move (1950).
He returned to radio more strongly in the 1970s, becoming federal play editor with the ABC's radio drama and features unit.
He was also strongly associated with the Catholic church: his works in that area included Fishers of Men, a series of twelve radio plays on the twelve apostles and No Mean City, a play exploring a man's loss of faith in atomic-age Melbourne. He was later the president of the Australian Writers' Guild.
He was married to journalist Sheila Clancy and is the father of two sons, including ABC journalist Marius Benson.
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