Born and educated in England, Nik Steven’s interests have always been wide and varied. As well as playing the clarinet and making short films, he also takes seriously good photographs, casts bronze sculpture, designs theatre sets and writes short stories and film scripts.

After winning a BBC film competition back in the 70’s, at the age of fifteen, he was invited by BBC Bristol to shoot a twenty-minute short under any subject of his choosing, leading one to believe his destiny was set. His father, Anthony Steven, a prolific television writer who co-wrote The Forsyth Saga, had other plans. Eager to avoid paying 90% supertax, he whisked the entire family off to the safety of Malta and then to Italy, where the taxman’s’ grasp was out of reach.  

After five years exile, he ran out of cash. The family were rescued by an Italian Countess and air lifted back to England.

Nicholas remained in Italy and moved to Rome where he worked various jobs in film and television as cameraman and photographer, living for a period with the famous American sculptor, Zev, in Trastevere.