Biography
Stephen Meier is a filmmaker known for fearless storytelling, emotional precision, and a hands-on approach. His work blends cinematic style with raw authenticity, creating stories that are visually captivating and deeply human.
Stephen's journey to filmmaking is as cinematic as his work. After starting in Hollywood, he stepped away following 9/11 and built a successful career as a stockbroker. In 2008, a serious health crisis forced him to confront his mortality, prompting a return to filmmaking with renewed purpose, relentless drive, and clarity about the stories he was meant to tell.
Throughout his dynamic Hollywood tenure, Stephen has written, sold, and optioned numerous screenplays, and has been commissioned by producers and studios to adapt books and develop television pilots. He has also become a trusted, uncredited script doctor for top producers, refining screenplays and reediting films struggling in post-production, quietly transforming them into cohesive, emotionally resonant stories while maintaining artistic integrity.
Most recently, he wrote, directed, and produced the coming-of-age thriller Woodbridge, a bold, emotionally charged debut that reimagines independent filmmaking. Set over one fateful night in 1988, it follows four teenagers whose plan to confront a bully takes a dangerous turn that changes their lives forever. The film explores guilt, courage, and consequence against a nostalgic yet unsettling suburban backdrop, blending suspense and intimacy to reveal how one night can fracture innocence and ignite transformation. Shot over ten nights on a shoestring budget, Woodbridge tested Stephen's resilience when just forty-eight hours before filming, the director of photography and key crew members fell ill with COVID-19. Undeterred, he rebuilt the team overnight, maintained the schedule, and pushed forward without compromise. The film also pioneered a social-first distribution strategy, casting emerging actors and digital creators to fuse authentic performance with built-in audience engagement, turning its release into a cultural conversation and demonstrating that independent cinema can be both daring and commercially savvy.
Through his production company Dream Faktory, Stephen is developing a slate of projects that reflect his signature blend of intelligence, dark humor, and heart, including Debutantes (now casting for January 2026), Ninja Girl (a 360-degree transmedia franchise in partnership with Whirlygig), and Teaching Pandas to Swim. Each project embodies his drive to create entertainment that challenges, provokes, and endures.
