Stephen M. Ryder

Stephen McClellan Ryder was born in Monticello, New York in 1943. The seventh child of a retired U.S. Cavalry trooper and the legendary showgirl Vicky Lynn, Stephen grew up on Sedgwick avenue in the Bronx. He went straight from DeWitt Clinton High School to the U.S. Army at the beginning of the Vietnam era, and upon resuming civilian life, became a police officer. After being injured on three occasions, his law enforcement career ended and Stephen took up the pen, becoming a police reporter, then a feature writer for the New York Daily News, where he was a candidate for Pulitzer Prize nomination for "Half The Power Of God.- A Police Story." The early 1990s brought a new career path. Stephen had long ago gone back to college and excelled. He became an educator after studies at Harvard, teaching writing at an exclusive prep school. During that time he wrote three books "The Man From Machupuchare," "Minstrel," and the much-heralded "Dinner Behind The Lines" for Bennington Books, selling out three editions. In 2001 Stephen accepted a faculty position at New York University to teach screen-writing. NYU voted him "The Most Accomplished Faculty" in 2001. The success of his landmark film "L.I.E." and his fluency in French landed Stephen a Producer's slot at Metropolis Films in Paris, and upon returning to the States, Monsieur Ryder 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 WGA (Writer's Guild of America;) the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO;) The Academy of American Poets, The Dramatists'Guild, and SAG-AFTRA. Stephen, a divorced father of four lives alone in a chateau in the south of France.