As an actor with the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis from 1988-2008, Stephen has over forty roles to his credit including Private Lives (Elyot), Three Sisters (Vershinin), Iphegenai at Aulis (Agamemnon), The Cherry Orchard (Lopakhin), The Seagull (Trigorin), Sideman (Al), Much Ado About Nothing (Benedick), A Doll's House (Torvald), and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bottom, Theseus/Oberon).

Off Broadway he was seen as Macduff in Macbeth. He played the title role in Richard III at the Tony Award winning Intiman Theatre, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Brick) and Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Valmont) Seattle Repertory Theatre, Uncle Vanya (Astrov) at the Geffen Playhouse, and Hamlet (Laertes) at Hartford Stage. At Baltimore's Center Stage A Flea In Her Ear, Henry IV, I and Execution of Justice. Virginia Stage Company: Tom in A Glass Menagerie and Ferdinand in The Tempest.

His international credits include work with the International Classic Theatre in Greece and Cyprus where he played Creon in Antigone. In Canada he performed at the Citadel in Edmonton and The National Theater in Ottawa as Cassio in Othello. In Nova Scotia he played Henry Higgins in Pygmalion at the Atlantic Theatre Festival. Film: Sweet Land, Wooly Boys, Factotum (France), Irv de Toilette, and Killer Movie.

Stephen has been the recipient of several awards and fellowships. In 2001 he received a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship, in 2000 a McKnight Fellowship and in 1998 Fox Fellow Award. Stephen is a 1984 graduate of the PTTP.