Benjamin Hedin is the author of a novel, Under the Spell, as well as the nonfiction chronicle In Search of the Movement: The Struggle for Civil Rights Then and Now and the short play Silence. He also edited the anthology Studio A: The Bob Dylan Reader, widely regarded as one of the best collections of music writing. His work has been published by The New Yorker, Time, Atlantic, The Paris Review, Chicago Tribune, Oxford American, Poets & Writers, Lithub, The American Scholar, Salmagundi, and the Nation, among other publications.

Hedin is the writer and producer of the acclaimed documentaries MLK/FBI, Two Trains Runnin', and Lakota Nation vs. United States. For these films he was honored with Grammy, Emmy and IDA Award nominations, and MLK/FBI won the Critics' Choice Award for Best Historical Documentary. It was also shortlisted for the Oscars in 2021. In 2024, Lakota Nation vs. United States received the prestigious Television Academy Honors. These films were selected to screen at Telluride, Toronto, Tribeca, the New York Film Festival, and other venues.

Over the years Hedin has taught at New York University, The New School, and Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies. He is a member of the Producers Guild and a fellow of the Sundance Documentary Fund. He lives in Atlanta.