Steven E. de Souza

Steven E. de Souza is an American screenwriter, director and producer whose work helped define the high‑octane action genre of the 1980s and early 1990s. Born on November 17, 1947, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he is the son of Jamaican immigrant H. Walton Henriques de Souza and Evelyn Green, and he grew up in a family that valued both business acumen and storytelling. He earned a degree from Pennsylvania State University, where he studied under noted science‑fiction author William Tenn, an influence that would later surface in his occasional forays into speculative television. De Souza began his professional life as a story editor on popular primetime series such as The Six Million Dollar Man and The Hardy Boys Mysteries, quickly moving up to producer and writer positions, most famously producing the first season of Knight Rider and creating the short‑lived sci‑fi series The Powers of Matthew Star. His transition to feature films was marked by the 1972 low‑budget comedy Arnold’s Wrecking Co., which earned a Special Jury Prize at the Atlanta Film Festival and demonstrated his knack for blending humor with genre conventions. Throughout the 1980s he became one of Hollywood’s most sought‑after script doctors, penning blockbusters such as 48 Hrs., Commando, The Running Man, and the seminal Die Hard series, where he even invented the fictional Latin American nation of Val Verde for Commando and Die Hard 2. In addition to these action staples he contributed to The Flintstones (1994) and the cult‑classic video‑game adaptation Street Fighter, the latter inspired by his son’s enthusiasm for the franchise. De Souza’s work has earned both acclaim and infamy: he was twice nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for 48 Hrs. and Die Hard, won the 1991 Razzie for Hudson Hawk, and received the 2000 Norman Lear Lifetime Achievement Award for writing. Later in his career he explored digital media, producing the award‑winning web series Unknown Sender (triple honoree at the 2009 Webby Awards) and collaborating on the animated pilot Spyburbia for Fox. His contributions to newspapers and magazines—including The New York Times and Empire—further underscore a versatile voice that has shaped action storytelling across multiple platforms.