Born in Dublin 1959, Stephen Rooke attended Bournemouth Film School as a mature student where he graduated with an “Advanced Diploma in Media Production” in July 1989. In the same year he set up his own production company “Tile Films Ltd.” to direct and produce a thirty-minute television and cinema drama “Undercurrents” starring Mary McGuckian and Niall Tobin. He was then commissioned to produce and direct a one-hour documentary “Voices from the Sand” for PBS in America.
Stephen has gained a reputation as one of Ireland's leading programme makers. He has directed / produced over a hundred television documentaries and programmes which have been seen on channels throughout the world. From the internationally renowned “Waterways” series, which received a ‘Jacob’s’ award in 1992 and a nomination for a ‘Cable Ace Award’ in 1993, to “Terry” an intimate documentary profile on Terry Keane, Ireland’s most notorious mistress and gossip columnists, Stephen has undertaken a diverse range of projects.
Stephen produced “The Lost Gods”, a 6 x 25 min series and prequel to the highly successful “Heaven on Earth" which he both produced and directed. Shot in HD, the “The Lost Gods” explores the lost cities and ancient shrines of six of the worlds major lost civilizations (The Egyptians, The Greeks, The Romans, The Maya, The Inca & The Celts). It was co-produced with Vision TV International for S4C Wales, TG4 (Ireland), Vision TV (Canada), SRG SSR idée Suisse, YLE Teema (Finland), S4C International and Ellis releasing. It was shot in locations within Peru, Guatemala, Mexico, Greece, Turkey, Italy, Egypt, Austria, Wales and Ireland.
Stephen was also the producer of "Wrecking The Rising (Éirí Amach Amú)". This comedy of errors follows the fortunes of three Dublin men who travel back in time to 1916, just as the Easter Rising is about to break out. Their first act on arrival is to accidentally kill Pádraig Pearse. Realizing they have inadvertently ruined the Rising before it has even begun; they must somehow concoct a plan to keep history on course. "Wrecking The Rising" won Best Drama Script at the 2017 IFTA Film & Drama Awards.
