Jeffrey Steefel is a creator of

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

s and former actor. He earned a degree in drama from

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...

. Steefel served as Executive Producer at

Turbine, Inc WB Games Boston (formerly Turbine Inc., then Turbine Entertainment Software Corp., and originally CyberSpace, Inc.) is an American video game developer. The studio is best known for its massive multiplayer online role-playing games, '' Asheron' ...

. from 2004 to 2015, during which time he led the creation and launch of ''

The Lord of the Rings Online ''The Lord of the Rings Online'' is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows and OS X set in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, taking place during the time period of ''The Lord of the Rings''. Originally d ...

.'' Since 2015, he has been building a game development studio at

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. It is currently a subsidia ...

, currently in Open Beta with '' Magic: The Gathering Arena'', the studio's first game.

Acting career

As a young adult in the 1980s, Steefel left his native

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

for New York City to pursue an acting career. After having graduated from the

Circle in the Square The Circle in the Square Theatre is a Broadway theater at 235 West 50th Street, in the basement of Paramount Plaza, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is one of two Broadway theaters that use a thrust stage that extends ...

professional acting program, he performed and sang in off-Broadway productions. Steefel helped found the Project III Ensemble Theater, where he managed the 1986 production of ''Flood'' by Günter Grass, and appeared onstage in

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and worl ...

's '' The Imaginary Invalid'' and the world premiere of ''Bliss'' by Mikhail Bulgakov.ibid.
/ref> Steefel's most notable New York performance was at the

Lamb's Theatre Lamb's Theatre was an Off-Broadway theater located at 130 West 44th Street, Manhattan, 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 productio ...

, in the role of

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

in the 1989 revival of ''

Godspell ''Godspell'' is a musical composed by Stephen Schwartz with book by John-Michael Tebelak. The show is structured as a series of parables, primarily based on the Gospel of Matthew, interspersed with music mostly set to lyrics from traditional hym ...

'', alongside young actors

Trini Alvarado Trinidad "Trini" Alvarado (born January 10, 1967) 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 fi ...

and

Harold Perrineau, Jr Harold may refer to: People * Harold (given name), including a list of persons and fictional characters with the name * Harold (surname), surname in the English language * András Arató, known in meme culture as "Hide the Pain Harold" Arts ...

. The production, directed by

Don Scardino Donald Joseph Scardino (born February 17, 1949) is an American television director and producer and a former actor. Career Acting Scardino was born in New York City, to jazz musician parents, Dorothy Denny Scardino and Charles Scardino. His f ...

, caught the attention of ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' writer Sonia Taitz, who wrote a lengthy article about the director and 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 The theatre games tradition is a method of training actors that was developed in the 20th century by practitioners such as Joan Littlewood, Viola Spolin, Paul Sills, Clive Barker, Keith Johnstone, Jerzy Grotowski and Augusto Boal. Theatre games ar ...

. ''New York Times'' critic Stephen Holden gave the play and Steefel's performance a somewhat lukewarm review, though other reviews were more favorable and the play enjoyed full houses for a long run. After several years in New York, Steefel headed back to California and became an ensemble member of the Colony Theater Company in Burbank. While there, he performed in the plays ''Rags'' and ''Working''. According to his 1995 biography at The Colony Theatre Company website, he also appeared in

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

s on television.

Computer games career

Steefel's early experience in game development includes his time as Vice President of Production at

7th Level 7th Level was a video game development company based in Dallas, Texas and founded in 1993. Notable game titles by the company include: the three Monty Python games (with the aid of Python member Eric Idle); '' G-Nome'' (1997), a '' MechWarrior'' ...

, an interactive entertainment company. There he helped develop and maintain the company's strategic partnerships with such companies as IBM and

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

, and oversaw the creation of many games, including ''Tamagotchi'', ''Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time'', ''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 Daybreak Game Company LLC is an American video game developer based in San Diego. The company was founded in December 1997 as Sony Online Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment, but was spun off to an independent investor in ...

as the Vice President of Programming & Production, where he headed their digital studios in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

and New York and supervised a large production staff. While there, he oversaw the launches of franchises such as ''JEOPARDY! Online'', ''Wheel of Fortune Online'', and ''Trivial Pursuit Online'', among others. Steefel also developed strategic relationships with Columbia Tri-Star Television, MTV, RealNetworks, VH1, ESPN, Hasbro, and LucasArts. In his next role, Steefel served as Vice President of Programming and Member Services for There, Inc., where he helped create an online virtual 3D environment tailored for mainstream consumers. He also 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, Steefel joined Turbine, Inc. as Executive Producer of ''The Lord of the Rings Online'', having stated in an interview that he had long been a fan of the

Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works '' The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawl ...

classic and made the move to Turbine specifically to work on this project.Eurogamer.net interview
by Rob Fahey 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. Steefel joined Wizards of the Coast in January 2017, to lead the newly created Digital Games Studio, focused on game development. The studio's first game was '' Magic: The Gathering Arena'', released in Beta form in November 2017, and followed by full releases for Microsoft Windows and macOS in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

Games created by Jeffrey Steefel

*''

Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time ''Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time'' is a collection of minigames, screensavers, desktop wallpaper and icons for Mac OS System 7 and Windows released in 1994 by 7th Level, Inc. It was brought on board the Mir Space Station by astronaut An ...

'' (1994),

*'' Battle Beast'' (1995), 7th Level, BMG Interactive *''

Ace Ventura Ace Ventura is a title character created by screenwriter Jack Bernstein. Ace was performed by Jim Carrey in the films '' Ace Ventura: Pet Detective'', released in 1994, and '' Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls'', released in 1995, and was voiced b ...

'' (1996), Bomico Entertainment Software *''

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life ''Monty Python's The Meaning of Life'', also known simply as ''The Meaning of Life'', is a 1983 British musical sketch comedy film written and performed by the Monty Python troupe, directed by Terry Jones. ''The Meaning of Life'' was the last f ...

'' (1997), Panasonic Interactive Media *'' Raymond E. Feist's Return to Krondor'' (1998),

Sierra On-Line Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genr ...

*''Sports JEOPARDY! Online'' (1999),

*''Trivial Pursuit Online'' (2000),

*'' There'' (2003), There, Inc. *'' Asheron's Call 2: Legions'' (2005),

Turbine, Inc. WB Games Boston (formerly Turbine Inc., then Turbine Entertainment Software Corp., and originally CyberSpace, Inc.) is an American video game developer. The studio is best known for its massive multiplayer online role-playing games, ''Asheron's ...

*'' The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar'' (2007), Midway Games *'' The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria'' (2008),

*'' The Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood'' (2009),

Infinite Crisis "Infinite Crisis" is a 2005–2006 comic book storyline published by DC Comics, consisting of an eponymous, seven-issue comic book limited series written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Phil Jimenez, George Pérez, Ivan Reis, and Jerry Ordway, ...

(2014), WB Games * Magic: the Gathering Arena (2018),

Personal life

Jeffrey Steefel is married and a father of twins. He and his wife, former writer and actress Carissa Channing-Steefel, reside in

Burien, Washington Burien ( ) is a suburban city in King County, Washington, United States, located south of Seattle on Puget Sound. As of the 2020 census, Burien's population was 52,066, which is a 56.3% increase since incorporation in 1993. An annexation in 2010 ...

.Milton Times Online
October 12, 2006

References

External links

The Lord of the Rings Online official websiteInfinite Crisis official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Steefel, Jeffrey 1961 births Male actors from San Francisco Living people University of California, Davis alumni Video game directors