Jeffrey Steefel
Encyclopedia
Jeffrey Steefel is an American producer of video games and a former actor. He attended University of California, Davis
where he earned a degree in drama. Since 2004, he has served as executive producer of The Lord of the Rings Online at Turbine, Inc
.
for New York City to pursue an acting career. He performed and sang off-Broadway
, most notably at the Lamb's Theatre
in the role of Jesus
in the 1989 revival of Godspell
, having shared the stage with young actors Trini Alvarado
and Harold Perrineau, Jr. The production, directed by Don Scardino
, caught the attention of The New York Times
writer Sonia Taitz, who wrote a 2-page article about the director and the cast. In the article, cast members describe how Steefel was selected for the lead role by the director after the ensemble spent a week playing theater games. New York Times critic Stephen Holden gave the play and Steefel's performance a somewhat lukewarm review.
Prior to Godspell, Steefel had helped found the Project III Ensemble Theater where he served as production manager for the 1986 production of Flood by Günter Grass
, and appeared onstage in Molière
's The Imaginary Invalid and the world premiere of Bliss by Mikhail Bulgakov
. After several years in New York, he headed back to the West Coast and became an ensemble member of the Colony Theater Company in Burbank, California
. While at the Colony, he performed in the plays Rags and Working. According to his 1995 biography at The Colony Theatre Company website, he also had appeared in soap opera
s on television.
and Disney, and oversaw the creation of many games, including Tamagotchi, Monty Python's Meaning of Life, Ace Ventura Pet Detective (for which his wife provided the voices of characters "Oosik" and "Vanilla Sundae"), Fun on Imagination Island, and Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games.
Steefel then moved to Sony Online Entertainment
as the Vice President of Programming & Production, where he headed their digital studios in Los Angeles
and New York and supervised a large production staff. He oversaw the launches of franchises such as JEOPARDY! Online, Wheel of Fortune Online, and Trivial Pursuit Online, among others. At Sony, Steefel also developed strategic relationships with Columbia Tri-Star Television, MTV, RealNetworks, VH1, ESPN, Hasbro, and LucasArts.
After leaving Sony, Steefel moved to There, Inc. and served as Vice President of Programming and Member Services. While at There, Steefel helped create an online virtual 3D environment tailored for mainstream consumers. Jeffrey headed customer service, community development, programming teams, and managed Member Services and content programming for a large-scale public Beta community, and oversaw its transition to a multi-player pay service.
In early 2004, Jeffrey joined Turbine, Inc. as Executive Producer of The Lord of the Rings Online, stating in an interview that he had long been a fan of the Tolkien
classic and made the move to Turbine specifically to work on this project. Turbine's The Lord of The Rings Online launched in 2007 and proved to be wildly popular among gamers and fans of Tolkien's book, as Steefel and his team strove to keep the environment of the game as faithful to the author's original writings as possible.
.
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...
where he earned a degree in drama. Since 2004, he has served as executive producer of The Lord of the Rings Online at Turbine, Inc
Turbine, Inc.
Turbine, Inc. is an American computer game developer that pioneers 3D massively multiplayer online role-playing games . Turbine was founded by Johnny Monsarrat, Jeremy Gaffney, Kevin Langevin, and Timothy Miller, changing their company name in 2005 to Turbine, Inc...
.
Acting career
As a young adult in the 1980s, Jeffrey Steefel left his native CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
for New York City to pursue an acting career. He performed and sang off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
, most notably at the Lamb's Theatre
Lamb's Theatre
Lamb's Theatre was an Off-Broadway theater located at 130 West 44th Street, New York City inside the Manhattan Church of the Nazarene, near Times Square in New York City. It seated approximately 350 and specialized in musical productions...
in the role of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
in the 1989 revival of Godspell
Godspell
Godspell is a musical by Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak. It opened off Broadway on May 17, 1971, and has played in various touring companies and revivals many times since, including a 2011 revival now playing on Broadway...
, having shared the stage with young actors Trini Alvarado
Trini Alvarado
Trinidad "Trini" Alvarado is an American actress best known for her performances as Margaret "Meg" March in the 1994 film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women and Lucy Lynskey in the comedy/horror film The Frighteners...
and Harold Perrineau, Jr. The production, directed by Don Scardino
Don Scardino
Don Scardino is an American television director and producer and a former actor.-Acting:Born in New York City, Scardino began his career as an actor. His first Broadway credit was as an understudy in The Playroom in 1965. Additional Broadway acting credits include Johnny No-Trump, Godspell, and...
, caught the attention of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
writer Sonia Taitz, who wrote a 2-page article about the director and the cast. In the article, cast members describe how Steefel was selected for the lead role by the director after the ensemble spent a week playing theater games. New York Times critic Stephen Holden gave the play and Steefel's performance a somewhat lukewarm review.
Prior to Godspell, Steefel had helped found the Project III Ensemble Theater where he served as production manager for the 1986 production of Flood by Günter Grass
Günter Grass
Günter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize-winning German author, poet, playwright, sculptor and artist.He was born in the Free City of Danzig...
, and appeared onstage in Molière
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
's The Imaginary Invalid and the world premiere of Bliss by Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhaíl Afanásyevich Bulgákov was a Soviet Russian writer and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, which The Times of London has called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.-Biography:Mikhail Bulgakov was born on...
. After several years in New York, he headed back to the West Coast and became an ensemble member of the Colony Theater Company in Burbank, California
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
. While at the Colony, he performed in the plays Rags and Working. According to his 1995 biography at The Colony Theatre Company website, he also had appeared in soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s on television.
Computer games career
Jeffrey Steefel's early experience in game development include his time as Vice President of Production at 7th Level, an interactive entertainment company. There he helped develop and maintain the company's strategic partnerships with such companies as IBMIBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
and Disney, and oversaw the creation of many games, including Tamagotchi, Monty Python's Meaning of Life, Ace Ventura Pet Detective (for which his wife provided the voices of characters "Oosik" and "Vanilla Sundae"), Fun on Imagination Island, and Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games.
Steefel then moved to Sony Online Entertainment
Sony Online Entertainment
Sony Online Entertainment is a game development and game publishing division of Sony that is best known for creating massively multiplayer online games, including EverQuest, EverQuest II, The Matrix Online, PlanetSide, Star Wars Galaxies, Free Realms, and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, DC Universe...
as the Vice President of Programming & Production, where he headed their digital studios in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
and New York and supervised a large production staff. He oversaw the launches of franchises such as JEOPARDY! Online, Wheel of Fortune Online, and Trivial Pursuit Online, among others. At Sony, Steefel also developed strategic relationships with Columbia Tri-Star Television, MTV, RealNetworks, VH1, ESPN, Hasbro, and LucasArts.
After leaving Sony, Steefel moved to There, Inc. and served as Vice President of Programming and Member Services. While at There, Steefel helped create an online virtual 3D environment tailored for mainstream consumers. Jeffrey headed customer service, community development, programming teams, and managed Member Services and content programming for a large-scale public Beta community, and oversaw its transition to a multi-player pay service.
In early 2004, Jeffrey joined Turbine, Inc. as Executive Producer of The Lord of the Rings Online, stating in an interview that he had long been a fan of the Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
classic and made the move to Turbine specifically to work on this project. Turbine's The Lord of The Rings Online launched in 2007 and proved to be wildly popular among gamers and fans of Tolkien's book, as Steefel and his team strove to keep the environment of the game as faithful to the author's original writings as possible.
Games created by Jeffrey Steefel
- Monty Python's Complete Waste of TimeMonty Python's Complete Waste of TimeMonty Python's Complete Waste of Time is a collection of minigames, screen savers, desktop wallpaper and icons for Mac OS System 7, DOS and Windows. The content is drawn primarily from the Monty Python's Flying Circus TV series...
(1994), 7th Level7th Level7th Level was a video games development company based in Dallas, Texas and founded in 1993. The company was most famous for developing the three Monty Python games , G-Nome — a MechWarrior-style game, for publishing Helicops — an anime-inspired arcade-style aerial combat game, and for Tracer — a... - Battle BeastBattle BeastBattle Beast is a side-scrolling fighting game released for the PC in 1995. In the style of Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, a player can play against another human opponent or computer-controlled opponents in different levels using hand-to-hand combat, special moves and weapons to defeat each other...
(1995), 7th Level, BMG Interactive Entertainment - Ace VenturaAce Ventura (computer game)Ace Ventura: The CD-Rom Game is an adventure game for the PC released on October 31, 1996 by 7th Level. The game is based on the Ace Ventura animated series...
(1996), Bomico Entertainment Software - Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1997), Panasonic Interactive Media
- Raymond E. Feist's Return to KrondorReturn to KrondorReturn to Krondor is a computer role-playing game set in Raymond Feist's fictional fantasy setting of Midkemia. A sequel to 1993's Betrayal at Krondor, it was released for Windows 95 on the PC in time for the 1998 Christmas season...
(1998), Sierra On-Line - Sports JEOPARDY! Online (1999), Sony Online EntertainmentSony Online EntertainmentSony Online Entertainment is a game development and game publishing division of Sony that is best known for creating massively multiplayer online games, including EverQuest, EverQuest II, The Matrix Online, PlanetSide, Star Wars Galaxies, Free Realms, and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, DC Universe...
- Trivial Pursuit Online (2000), Sony Online EntertainmentSony Online EntertainmentSony Online Entertainment is a game development and game publishing division of Sony that is best known for creating massively multiplayer online games, including EverQuest, EverQuest II, The Matrix Online, PlanetSide, Star Wars Galaxies, Free Realms, and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, DC Universe...
- There (2003), There, Inc.
- Asheron's Call 2: Legions (2005), Turbine, Inc.Turbine, Inc.Turbine, Inc. is an American computer game developer that pioneers 3D massively multiplayer online role-playing games . Turbine was founded by Johnny Monsarrat, Jeremy Gaffney, Kevin Langevin, and Timothy Miller, changing their company name in 2005 to Turbine, Inc...
- The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of AngmarThe Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of AngmarThe Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game for Microsoft Windows set in a fantasy universe based upon J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings...
(2007), Midway GamesMidway GamesMidway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the... - The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of MoriaThe Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of MoriaThe Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria is the first retail expansion pack for the MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar released on November 18, 2008. It was announced on March 14, 2008 at ....
(2008), Turbine, Inc.Turbine, Inc.Turbine, Inc. is an American computer game developer that pioneers 3D massively multiplayer online role-playing games . Turbine was founded by Johnny Monsarrat, Jeremy Gaffney, Kevin Langevin, and Timothy Miller, changing their company name in 2005 to Turbine, Inc... - The Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of MirkwoodThe Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of MirkwoodThe Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood is the second retail expansion pack for the MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar and was released on December 1, 2009 in North America and December 3, 2009 in Europe. Unlike the first expansion this edition was only available via a...
(2009), Turbine, Inc.Turbine, Inc.Turbine, Inc. is an American computer game developer that pioneers 3D massively multiplayer online role-playing games . Turbine was founded by Johnny Monsarrat, Jeremy Gaffney, Kevin Langevin, and Timothy Miller, changing their company name in 2005 to Turbine, Inc...
Personal life
Jeffrey Steefel is married and a father of twins. He and his wife, former actress Carissa Channing-Steefel, reside in Milton, MassachusettsMilton, Massachusetts
Milton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and part of the Greater Boston area. The population was 27,003 at the 2010 census. Milton is the birthplace of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and architect Buckminster Fuller. Milton also has the highest percentage of...
.