Stephen Reis was born in Los Angeles in 1974 and raised in nearby Santa Barbara. The artist within emerged around age three, and as a young child he would spend countless hours drawing the worlds of his imagination.

Regular family outings to the movies, along with a healthy addiction to late-night monster and horror films, instilled the love of cinema in Stephen, and in 1992 he enrolled in the film program at Loyola Marymont University. He would graduate four years later with a bachelor's of arts degree.

In 1994, he studied drawing and photography at Studio Arts Center International in Florence, Italy. Being immersed in Italian culture and surrounded by some of the finest art to be created by man proved to be a defining time for both the artist and the young man.

Upon graduating from college, Stephen turned his attention to animation which in many ways combined his loves of drawing and cinema. In late 1996, he joined the animation crew for Fox's long-standing hit series "The Simpsons." The work environment on the show provided him with a second education as well as a paycheck as he learned more about drawing and storytelling than ever before.

Six years later, Stephen was named assistant director on "The Simpsons." And he returned to Loyola Marymont - this time as an instructor of animation and film.