Steven Berkoff was born in Stepney, London. After studying drama and mime in London and Paris, he entered a series of repertory companies and in 1968 formed the London Theatre Group. Their first professional production was In The Penal Colony, adapted from Kafka’s story. East, Steven’s first original stage play, was presented at the Edinburgh Festival in 1975. Other original plays include Messiah: Scenes from a Crucifixion, The Secret Love Life of Ophelia, West, Decadence, Greek, Harry's Christmas, Lunch, Acapulco, Sink the Belgrano!, Massage, Sturm und Drang and Brighton Beach Scumbags.
Among the many adaptations Berkoff has created for the stage, directed and toured are The Trial and Metamorphosis (Kafka), Agamemnon (after Aeschylus), and The Fall Of The House Of Usher from (Poe). His plays and adaptations have been performed in many countries and in many languages. He has also directed and toured productions of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus (also playing the title role), Richard II (for the New York Shakespeare Festival), Hamlet and Macbeth as well as Oscar Wilde’s Salomé. He directed and performed in Massage in Edinburgh and Los Angeles, and has performed One Man and Shakespeare’s Villains at venues all over the world. He has directed his plays and adaptations in many countries including Japan, Germany, Greece, Israel, Australia and America.
Films Steven has appeared in include A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Passenger, McVicar, Outlands, Octopussy, Beverly Hills Cop, Rambo, Revolution, Under the Cherry Moon, Absolute Beginners, The Krays, Fair Game, Another 9 ½ Weeks, Legionnaire, Rancid Aluminium, Forest of the Gods, The Flying Scotsman, PU-239 and 44-inch Chest. He directed and co-starred with Joan Collins in the film version of Decadence. He is just finished filming The Tourist with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie.
Television productions include: West (Limehouse/Channel 4), Metamorphosis (BBC), Harry's Christmas (Limehouse), Silent Night (Initial/Channel 4), and Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart (Hawkshead/Channel 4). Television credits include War and Remembrance, Michaelangelo – A Season of Giants, Sins, Attila, In the Beginning, Beloved Enemy, The Intruders, New Tricks and Hotel Babylon.
He has published a variety of books, such as the short story collections Graft: Tales of an Actor (Oberon Books) and Gross Intrusion (Quartet Books), the production journals I am Hamlet, Meditations on Metamorphosis (Faber and Faber), Coriolanus in Deutschland (Amber Lane Press), and A Prisoner in Rio (Hutchinson); his autobiography Free Association (Faber), a photographic history The Theatre of Steven Berkoff (Methuen), and travel writing, essay and poetry collections Shopping in the Santa Monica Mall (Robson Books), America (Hutchinson), and Overview (Faber). Faber has published Berkoff’s collected plays in three volumes, as well as The Secret Love Life of Ophelia. Requiem for Ground Zero (Amber Lane Press), Steven’s tribute to September 11th in verse, coincided with a run at the Edinburgh Festival, followed by a one-year anniversary performance in London. My Life in Food (ACDC) published last year is a collection of paeans to food and comfort, whilst his most recent book, You Remind me of Marilyn Monroe charts in verse, personal thoughts, pains and passions. His memoir Diary of a Juvenile Delinquent is to be published this summer.
Steven Berkoff has completed a variety of voiceover work and books on tape, including Kafka’s Metamorphosis and The Trial for Penguin Audiobooks and Henry Miller’s Nexus for Prelude Audio Books. Radio productions include the title role in Macbeth (Radio 4; available through Penguin Audiobooks) and his live music debut as the MC in Cabaret (Radio 2). He recorded An Actor’s Tale, a selection of his short stories, for Radio 4, and his voice can also be heard on the single The Mind of the Machine by the dance group N-Trance.
Steven has exhibited his photographs of London’s old East End at several galleries in London.
