Stephen was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1977. He attended the Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design from 1995-1997 to study Prosthetic Make Up. While still a student he secured his first job in the industry building miniatures with the Miniature Effects Unit on “Space Truckers” (1997 Dir. Stuart Gordon), and paid his way through college by freelancing as a designer and sculptor on Commercials. While at College he was introduced to and became fascinated with Black and White Photography and printing and quickly shifted his focus towards a career in the Camera Department. Upon graduating he took a short 6 week course in 35mm Filmmaking being run at Ardmore Film Studios which encouraged his love for the moving image even further. In 1997 he started work as a camera assistant and began working through the ranks of the camera department in the traditional way, working mainly in Drama and Commercials. Key mentors from his time as an assistant were future ISC members Tim Fleming and James Mather both of whom had a significant affect both in terms of aesthetics and working practice. In 2002 he attended a Steadicam Workshop in Philadelphia with inventor and operator Garrett Brown and shortly thereafter began to work as a Steadicam/Camera Operator. As an Operator he worked with several prominent members of both the BSC and the ASC, including Sean Bobbitt BSC (“Hunger” 2008 Dir. Steve McQueen) and Larry Smith BSC (“The Guard” 2011 Dir. John Michael McDonagh) as well as commercials and music promos with Seamus McGarvey ASC BSC, Harris Savides ASC, Peter Suschitzky, Robbie Ryan BSC ISC, Balazs Bolygo HSC BSC and Jake Polonsky BSC. In 2007 he relocated to London and began working as a Cinematographer shooting Promos and Commercials before moving into shooting 2nd unit on TV Drama like “The Night Manager” (2016 Dir. Susanne Bier, DP. Michael Snyman), “Humans” (2016 Dir. Lewis Arnold, DP. Ruairi O’Brien ISC), and “Black Mirror” (2016 Dir. Jakob Verbruggen, DP. Ruben Impens). In 2016 his break into main unit Drama work was the 5 part mini-series “The Moonstone” (Dir. Lisa Mulcahy) and shortly thereafter was asked to take over the last 3 episodes of Season 4 of “Line of Duty” (Dir. John Strickland). The massive success of that series led to further TV Drama credits on “Vera”, “Line of Duty S5”, “Traces”, “Years and Years”, “Death and Nightingales and “Hanna S2” as well as Additional Photography on Oscar and Bafta nominated “The Favourite” (2018 Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos, DP. Robbie Ryan BSC ISC). Stephen was asked to join the BSC as a full member in December 2019 after being proposed by both Robbie Ryan BSC ISC and Seamus McGarvey ASC ISC, and shortly thereafter also received an invitation to join the ISC.

Credits:
2020 “No one gets out alive” (Dir. Santiago Menghini)
2019 “Hanna” Season 2 (Dir. Ugla Hauksdottir)
2019 “Years and Years” (Dir. Lisa Mulcahy)
2019 “Traces” (Dir. Rebecca Gatward)
2019 “Line of Duty” Season 5 (Dir. John Strickland and Sue Tully)
2018 “Death and Nightingales” (Dir. Alan Cubitt)
2018 “Krypton” Season 1 Additional Photography (Dir. Various, DP James Mather ISC, Christopher Baffa ASC)
2018 “The Favourite” Additional Photography (Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos, DP Robbie Ryan BSC, ISC)