Biography
Award-winning actor Jonathan C. Stephens was born Jonathan Clark Stephens on January 30th, 1979, in Frankfurt, West Germany, in Hospital Zum Heiligen Geist (Hospital of the Holy Spirit). He likes to joke he's in a secret club of people whose birth country doesn't exist anymore. His father was teaching English to missionary families in the era of the Berlin Wall separation. Stephens is the son of Clark Leroy Stephens, a school administrator and Disney undercover security officer, and Kathleen Mary (James), a homemaker and clerk. He has a younger brother, Caleb James Stephens, and a younger sister, Bethany Louise Stephens.
At Liberty Christian High School, Stephens was involved in football, basketball, baseball, chess club, chaplain, choir, worship band, and piano festival competitions. He graduated Valedictorian in middle and high school and attended California State University, Long Beach, on scholarship where he majored in English education w/ emphasis in creative writing. Before pursuing acting, Stephens supported himself as ticket office clerk at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach, day camp counselor, making pizzas for his bosses Morpheus and Fabio, stocking Christmas shelves at Toys R Us, reselling things online, coaching football, and teaching. During his teaching career, he always found side gigs to tap his inner entrepreneur and creative: web designer, photographer, pastor, and novelist, eventually founding his own successful literature curriculum company. His life interests include gender-expansive fashion, gardening, horseback riding, and archery.
His work has twice earned him the award of Best Actor -- by the Stranger Days Independent Film Festival and the 48-Hr Film Project -- and a nomination for Best Newcomer by the Metrolina Theatre Association.
