Stephenson attended The Hewett School in Norwich before studying at Manchester University, where he gained a first-class degree in drama.
[8] Stephenson was appointed in March 2015 as the Head of Television at J. J. Abrams' Bad Robot production company in the United States.
[9] In July 2009 Stephenson wrote a blog article for The Guardian newspaper in response to criticisms of the BBC's drama output.
Jeremy Hunt, shadow culture secretary at the time, called for Stephenson to make "an immediate retraction and apology", stating "no journalist or editor should be following a political agenda, let alone someone as senior as a controller".
[11] Critics such as Stephen Glover of the Daily Mail said that rather than being idiosyncratic, Stephenson "is part of the status quo, conforming to the Leftist beliefs that predominate in the BBC."