John Stephenson

John Stephenson is an Academy Award winner and BAFTA-nominated director. Born in London, England he received his education at the Kingston School of Art, followed by the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1979. In the early 80's John Stephenson joined creator of the Muppets, Jim Henson, as a member of the unique group of artist-designers working on the ground-breaking film The Dark Crystal (1982). For the next few years, he worked as a freelance designer and maker on a series of film projects that included Greystokes, Return to OZ, Max Mon Amour, Duran Duran's Wild Boys(video) and Highlander. In 1985 he re-joined the Henson Company (joining forces with Duncan Kenworthy [producer]) as Creative Supervisor of the newly formed Creature Shop. For nearly twenty years he remained at the helm of Jim Henson's Creature Shop (renamed after Jim's death in 1990) during which time he started to combine the sophisticated animatronics produced by the Creature Shop with Digital Animation adding a state-of-the-art CG department to the facility. In 1994 John was awarded an Academy of Motion Pictures arts and sciences award and in 2000 an OBE for services to animation His creativity and broad experience soon launched him into a directing career applying his hand to both commercials and feature films. He helmed the Hallmark Creature Shop co-production of Animal Farm (1999). Stephenson also directed the film adaptation of the novel Five Children and It (2004) and The Christmas Candle (2013) . In November 2017, John Stephenson co-wrote and directed Interlude in Prague (2017) which won a Golden Angel Award for the Best International Co-Production Film at the Chinese American Film Festival.