Stephen was born in Melbourne, Australia. He was educated at Melbourne Grammar School and studied Music and Drama at Melbourne University before moving permanently to London. As his father is English Stephen has dual nationality. He made his directing debut staging Trial By Jury in the Bow Street Magistrates Court for the Covent Garden Festival.

Subsequently, his productions have included La Traviata (Singapore Lyric Opera), Dovetales - a collection of Jonathan Dove operas (Glyndebourne Jerwood Studio),  Hänsel und Gretel (Opera Holland Park) the London premiere of Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella (UCOpera), Idomeneo with Peter Sellars (Glyndebourne Touring Opera) Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens (Chelsea Theatre) and an unanimously acclaimed production of Tosca for Opera Holland Park. This production was recently revived at the Richmond Theatre, London and was described by The Guardian as
"the most brilliantly original production of Tosca to be seen in this country for decades".

As Revival Director his productions have included Madama Butterfly and Tosca (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), Otello (Glyndebourne Festival Opera and San Francisco Opera) and La Rondine (Metropolitan Opera, Opéra Monte Carlo and San Francisco Opera).

Stephen began his apprenticeship at Glyndebourne and Covent Garden where he worked as an assistant/associate director on over twenty productions including Don Giovanni, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, The Bartered Bride, Attila, La Bohème, The Cunning Little Vixen, Aida, Samson et Dalila, Il trovatore, Peter Grimes and the world premiere of Lorin Mazel’s 1984 . He also worked as assistant director on Cavalleria Rusticana & I Pagliacci for Raymond Gubbay at the Royal Albert Hall and on two Olivier award winning productions at the Royal National Theatre Singin' in the Rain and Anything Goes, assisting Trevor Nunn. He was also Andrew Lloyd Webber’s resident director on the UK touring production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Stephen has worked very closely with Jonathan Kent on new productions of Tosca (Covent Garden), The Turn of the Screw (Glyndebourne), Elektra (Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg) and was his Associate Director on the West End musical Marguerite at the Haymarket Theatre.

His future work includes directing new productions of Don Giovanni for Opera Holland Park, the European premiere of Tobias Picker's Fantastic Mr Fox, La Bohème for British Youth Opera, Dialogues des Carmélites for Guildhall School of Music and Drama and revivals of Roméo et Juliette for Covent Garden and La Rondine for the Metropolitan Opera.