Stephen’s first stage role was that of the Cheshire cat in Lewis Carrols Alice in Wonderland. After rave reviews and a run of three nights Stephen had a short rest from acting and completed his primary school education.

Critics have said that this break may have been his downfall as Stephen’s next role was the Sheep in the Christmas Nativity play. New parts were offered frequently to Stephen but, afraid of being typecast as an animal, Stephen declined all of these. Following many sparse years where Stephen was forced to find alternative work in the field of computational materials science, Stephen finally accepted the part of a man dying from poisoning in a Sherlock Holmes murder mystery. This re-awoke his lust for acting and his joining of the Irregular Special Players.