Steven E. de Souza - Life and Career

Life and Career

De Souza was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Evelyn and Walton Henriques de Souza. He attended Penn State, where he was a student of Philip Klass (better known by his pseudonym William Tenn).

De Souza has written extensively for television, on such series as The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, and Knight Rider, as well as The Powers of Matthew Star and Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, both of which he also created. He was also responsible for several of the most successful films of the 1980s and 90s, including Commando, 48 Hrs., The Running Man, The Flintstones, Die Hard, and Die Hard 2.

De Souza later scripted Beverly Hills Cop III, Judge Dredd and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. He also produced and directed a number of films and television shows including Street Fighter and Possessed.

De Souza started his film career writing, directing, and producing the low-budget stoner comedy Arnold's Wrecking Co., which won the Special Jury Prize at the 1972 Atlanta Film Festival.

He has been nominated twice for the Edgar Allan Poe award, an award given to any piece of media for excellence in mystery writing. The first in 1984 for 48 Hrs. and again in 1989 for Die Hard. de Souza also "won" the Razzie Award in 1991 when Hudson Hawk garnered enough hatred to be dubbed "Worst Screenplay."

In 2000 he was honored with the Norman Lear Award for Lifetime Achievement in writing.

In 2004, de Souza won the Dr. Bird award, which is given for achievement in the arts to people of Jamaican descent. (His family was early settlers of the Island nation when it was still a British colony.)

In 2007, de Souza appeared in the feature-length documentary Dreams on Spec, which profiled three aspiring screenwriters and featured comments from a number of distinguished writers like James L. Brooks, Nora Ephron, Carrie Fisher, and him.

In 2009, his suspense Web series Unknown Sender became a triple honoree at the 2009 Webby Awards for Best Writing, Best Dramatic Series, and Best Individual Performance.

In 2011, he teamed with Family Guy director Pete Michels for the Fox Network animated pilot "Spyburbia."

Mr. de Souza has also written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Premiere, Buzz, and Fade In. Recently, he was responsible for the critically acclaimed graphic novel re-boot of Will Eisner's classic comic character Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.