Born in Kent in 1976, Steve Piper grew up through the independent arts boom of the 90s, influenced and inspired by the abundant non-mainstream comics, music, theatre and film of the time.
Leaving school at 18 he helped establish Naked Pony Theatre Company in Canterbury acting as stage manager and technical producer. Performing European classics in a unique minimalist style, the company was name checked as part of a new fringe theatre movement at the edges of London, but, unable to fund an ambitious work with the playwright Goran Stefanovski, the company folded after four years of acclaimed work. Coffee Films had begun to surface though, with Piper making the short film Televisual Man in 1996.
Lying his way into a job account managing marketing campaigns for clients like Coca Cola, American Express, Nikon, and Nintendo, he continued producing fictional and documentary shorts over a five year period, while accumulating enough credit cards to leave corporate marketing and establish an arts and media company in 2004.
Reaching across film, music management, and digital marketing, the company released a series of shorts including How To Disappear Completely, which earned Piper recognition by an international jury as one of Europe’s most exciting emerging young filmmakers. It also led to an unlikely request for him to re-write a US children’s super hero film, with his introduction of a child trafficking villain selling children over the dark-web horrifying the studio executives.
Increasingly interested in wildlife filmmaking, in 2005 Piper began a two year shoot on conservation documentary Last of the Scottish Wildcats. The intent to film a critically endangered species widely considered un-filmable with a DV camcorder and some sponsorship money was met with some amusement, yet resulted in a widely praised and nationally distributed film with footage so rare it still occasionally appears in broadcasts today.
Using the film to launch a charity, the Scottish Wildcat Association, Piper became a vocal critic of Scottish Government efforts to conserve the species, and pulled together a team of expert advisors to launch the Wildcat Haven project in 2008. Developing an 800 square mile threat-free zone in the West Highlands over the next decade, the project was endorsed by Humane Society International as a model example of compassionate conservation.
In the same year Piper partnered into ILC Productions’ Killing Joke documentary The Death and Resurrection Show as it ran into financing problems. Already passed on as impossible to complete by several other producers, the film took another decade to lock and find a way through the complex archive rights. First seeing light at festivals in 2015, the feature premiered to a sold out audience at BFI Southbank National Film Theatre 1, going on to a short cinema run and international TV, VOD, DVD and blu-ray releases.
Moving to the North of England Piper became a founding director of independent record label Young Thugs, establishing a colourful modern punk visual aesthetic through a two year churn of music videos, photography, and live events. Continuing to dip into conservation work he provided PR consultation for the launches of projects conserving rhinos, tigers, elephants, and Eurasian lynx, and produced several web videos on wildcats which were syndicated to platforms worldwide.
Currently living in Yorkshire, Piper produces and directs music videos for labels including Bella Union, Ignition Records, and Warner Music Group, has shot photography published in Vogue, Aesthetica, Uncut, and national newspapers across the UK, US, and Europe, and has trained and coached actors for projects including Asterix,COBRA, and Bridgerton.
He is not New Zealand Steve Piper the location scout, US Steve Piper the actor, or Australian Steve Piper who filmed the Australian Bigfoot.