Steven Swadling
Steven Swadling was born on May 7, 1969, in Shoreham-by-Sea, England, to Christine Elizabeth (Parmiter) and Michael Barry Swadling, an electrician and has one older sibling.
Heavily influenced by Richard Burton, he was steadfast to pursue an acting career at a very early age and performed on stage whenever the opportunity arose. He joined the Connaught theatre group in 1983 and wrote a stage musical production that was later entered in to the Chichester festival. He visited Orange County just outside of LA in 1985 to study martial arts for 6 weeks then returned to England with a plan. In 1987 that plan came to fruition and Steven returned to the US and earned his Black Belt in Karate. He trained hard and learned fight coordination as his segue into film. He studied at the Van Mar Academy of Motion picture and has also studied at Sanford Meisner's PlayhouseWest, founded by Robert Carnegie and Jeff Goldblum.
In late 1996, Steven decided to step away from the industry to raise a family and also build a foundation for his businesses. His entrepreneurial abilities helped him form a full-service advertising agency, a children's book publishing company, a film production company, Room In The Sky Films.
After establishing his place back in the industry, Steven's breakthrough moment came with Kickboxer: Vengeance (2016) starring former world champion Dave Bautista from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Alain Moussi Gina Carano and world renowned, Jean-Claude Van Damme Steven was a fundamental component for the franchise reboot of the Kickboxer (1989) classic, and served not only as an executive producer but also the role of Joseph King. Steven went on to also executive produce the second installment of the trilogy Kickboxer: Retaliation (2018) again starring Alain Moussi, Jean-Claude Van Damme with the additions of Christopher Lambert Mike Tyson and several other world champions in the sporting world including Ronaldinho Gaúcho acting debut. He also reprises his role as Joseph King.
In 2016 Steven executive produced and played Detective Fripp in Point Defiance (2018) and immediately followed it up with Waterlily Jaguar (2018) directed by Melora Walters and shares the executive producing card with Paul Thomas Anderson the film stars James Le Gros Academy Award Winner Mira Sorvino and Dominic Monaghan Stacey Oristano and Christopher Backus Steven also plays Bill's (Dominic's character) business partner, Peter in the film.
Other recent films include Doe (2018) where Steven portrays a crooked retired prison warden hiding from his past. He plays a suspicious ranger in The Clearing (2020) starring with Liam McIntyre and Sydelle Noel and goes on to sidekick with Ewen Bremner in the upcoming release Freedom's Path (2022). It seems a bad guy pattern is starting to be drawn as he is slated to team up alongside Orlando Jones in Dark Forces.