Steven originally started honing his writing and visual skills in Advertising in Scotland as a Copywriter/Art Director in the 1990s, winning several awards for his creative work. He went on to teach Art, Design and Illustration in Scottish colleges for many years (and still does) before deciding to have a go at writing a screenplay, as he has been a lifelong movie fan, since his mother took him to see all the Disney films in his childhood.
To date, Overwhelming Darkness has won first place in the Thriller Screenplay contest at the Best Script Awards – London 2024, was the first-place winner in the screenplay competition at the Feel the Reel International Film Festival and has also won the screenplay competition at the ReelHeART International Film Festival as well. It has been a semi-finalist in the Golden Script Competition, was a quarter finalist in the monthly Wiki Screenplay Contest 2023, a finalist in the Bloody Hero International Film Festival and has also received Honorable Mentions from the Santa Barbara International Screenplay Awards 2023, the LA Movie Awards and Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival in the Best Original Script category 2023.
Overwhelming Darkness has been in the top 25% of the Page International Awards and has also received favourable coverage from The BlueCat Screenplay Competition, the Austin Film Festival Coverage Service and the StoryPros Awards.
In 2023 Steven completely rewrote the script, to really tighten it up and make it the best commercial version possible. He is currently turning Overwhelming Darkness into a Graphic Novel with a digital illustration company in Torino, Italy, and writing it as a novella/film novel as well.
For his second screenplay, Elsewhere Toronto, he was asked to collaborate on a story idea by a writer/director/editor friend from Toronto. This process is still ongoing.
Steven is also an artist/illustrator and has produced many commissioned works for private clients throughout the world. His Pop Art style portraits focus on Rock Stars, Movie Idols and Sports Heroes.
He has also started to write about his experiences of living with Motor Neurone Disease, since he was diagnosed with the condition back in December 2020.