About Steve
STEVE HARPER is a TV writer, playwright, producer & actor dedicated to exploring the impact of culture and metaphysics on everyday life. His plays have been described as “Theatrical magic…that punctures the soul”*, “Wryly hilarious and startlingly direct…”** and work that “Illuminate(s) the supernatural in the context of ordinary lived experiences.”*** Steve’s writing investigates how we navigate the world when invisible forces make themselves present. His work examines spirituality, sexuality, race, class and often deals with spirit creatures, mythical beings, and powers beyond human understanding.
Steve was a Co-Executive Producer of the CBS hit show Tracker (the most watched TV show of the 2023-24 season). He was Co-EP on DC’s Stargirl (CW / Max), and wrote for the TV shows God Friended Me (CBS), Tell Me Your Secrets (Amazon Prime), American Crime (ABC) and Covert Affairs (USA). His original web series SEND ME premiered on BET.com and earned a 2016 Emmy Nomination for series lead Tracie Thoms. It’s now on YouTube.
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Steve’s plays have been produced at theaters across the country including with The Fire This Time Festival, The 24 Hours Plays on Broadway and at Juilliard (NY), with Vivid Stage and The Theater Project (NJ), Northwestern University (online), and The American Theater Company (IL), Celebration Theater and The Lower Depth Theater Ensemble (online) (CA), and at Georgia Southern University (GA). His work have been developed with The Road Theatre Company, Sacred Fools Theater, Naked Angels, Classical Theater of Harlem, New York Theater Workshop and NY Stage and Film.
As a producer, Steve has shepherded a diverse array of projects including the Emmy nominated web series SEND ME, a workshop of his play The Escape Artists Children, his award winning anthology A Few Short Plays to Save the World, his YouTube channel for coaching aspiring writers, and The Secret Writer Podcast (heard in 21 countries). He’s developed projects with ABC Signature, Cinema Gypsy, 25 Stories and The Kennedy/Marshall Company.
As an actor, Steve has appeared on national television (Law & Order SVU, 90210, Rescue Me and Homicide: Life on The Street), in film (Chico & Rita, Jacqueline Remembers All of This, Broadway's Finest) and major regional theatres (among them The Guthrie, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and The Contemporary American Theater Festival).
Awards and honors include the 2023 Independent Press Award for A Few Short Plays to Save the World. His plays have been honored with a Weissberger Award nomination and as a semi-finalist for The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Steve received two grants from Lincoln Center’s Lecomte Du Nuoy Foundation, a MacDowell National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and two Yaddo fellowships. In performance, Steve won the Millennium Telly Award for his work on The Fox-45 Clubhouse, received the Artistic Achievement Award from the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale, and won the Best Actor award at L.A.’s Genre Celebration Festival for his work in SEND ME in 2016 .
Steve is a graduate of Yale, The A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard, and the playwriting program at Juilliard. He coaches writers through YourCreativeLife.com and co-hosts The Secret Writer Podcast.
* Michael St. John, San Francisco News
** Peter Brace, Northwestern University
**Darnell Moore, Mary Literary Quarterly