Stephen McClellan Ryder was born in 1943 in Monticello, New York, as the seventh child of a retired U.S. Cavalry trooper and the legendary showgirl Vicky Lynn.
Growing up on Sedgwick avenue in the Bronx, Stephen attended DeWitt Clinton High School and went straight to the U.S. Army at the beginning of the Vietnam era.
After his time in the Army, Stephen became a police officer, but was injured on three occasions, which led him to pursue a career in writing. He became a police reporter and feature writer for the New York Daily News, where he was a candidate for a Pulitzer Prize nomination for "Half The Power Of God - A Police Story".
The early 1990s marked a new chapter in Stephen's life, as he went back to college and excelled, becoming an educator and teaching writing at an exclusive prep school. During this time, he wrote three books, "The Man From Machupuchare", "Minstrel", and "Dinner Behind The Lines", which sold out three editions.
In 2001, Stephen accepted a faculty position at New York University to teach screenwriting, where he was voted "The Most Accomplished Faculty" in the same year.
Stephen's success in film led him to become a Producer at Metropolis Films in Paris, and later, he took the helm of Metropolis' New York office. He has written ten feature films and served as screenwriter and Executive Producer for Stargaze Pictures in Montreal.
Stephen is a member of several prestigious organizations, including the Writer's Guild of America, the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, The Academy of American Poets, The Dramatists' Guild, and SAG-AFTRA.
Today, Stephen lives alone in a chateau in the south of France, where he is a divorced father of four.
