Filmmaker. Philosopher. Listener
Rick Stevenson has conducted nearly 10,000 filmed, one-on-one life interviews across six continents — a body of work that may represent one of the largest private archives of personal storytelling ever created.
An award-winning filmmaker and founder of the StoryQ Method, Stevenson uses the language of cinema to help others understand and shape their own narratives in real time. His life’s work informs his keynote talks, including Finding the Joy and Meaning Locked Inside You and Using the Movies to Discover Your Own Leading Role, where he translates decades of lived insight into practical frameworks for identity and meaning.
He has directed, produced, or written twelve feature films and more than 100 hours of television, collaborating with artists including Robert Redford, Hugh Grant, Christopher Plummer, Kiefer Sutherland, Meg Ryan, and Patrick Dempsey. A Doctor of Philosophy from Oxford University, Stevenson is an author and public speaker focused on storytelling and the narratives that shape human lives.
““My mission is to help create a generation of self-empowered game-changers who realize that the choices they make every moment of every day can help them become exactly who they wish to be—to give individuals tools to unlock the power of their own personal stories and discover that they can in fact be the authors of their own lives.””
Goes deaf for a year due to chronic bronchitis. Discovers favorite childhood picture book: Harold and the Purple Crayon—a book about a boy who becomes the author of his own life using his purple crayon...
Falls in love with Jackie Kennedy, setting his romantic expectations extremely high.
Father becomes one of the youngest school superintendents in America, setting professional expectations extremely high. Months later discovers downside of having father as a school superintendent after father fails to declare a "snow day."
Graduates high school, earns Bachelor’s degree at Whitman College, Master’s at London School of Economics, works for Senator HM Jackson, interns for Peter Jennings at ABC News, and starts Doctorate of Philosophy at Oxford University—exhausting any further options for avoiding career decisions.
Gets the Film Bug and produces first feature film at Oxford University starring a young Hugh Grant.
Completes Doctorate of Philosophy, publishes first book on US-Soviet detente. Makes plans to join the Foreign Service. Still single.
Revolutionary students in Iran take over 50 American hostages, causing him to rethink plans of joining the Foreign Service. Still single.
Gets invited to Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute and signs with the William Morris Agency as filmmaker.
Pursues multiple award-winning film career eventually covering a dozen feature films, a hundred hours of television and working with such actors as Redford, Grant, Meg Ryan, Kiefer Sutherland, Christopher Plummer, Patrick Dempsey, and Jennifer Connelly. But still single.
Gets serious about finding the right person and discovers the problem has been the Man in the Mirror. Embraces Emotional Intelligence as a means to set us free from our own emotional prison.
Meets Julie, who is even better than Jackie. Gets married and inherits two kids with the deal.
To work at home he starts the 5000 Days Project with 60 kids from north Seattle to create documentaries about childhood.
Discovers kids need and want to talk on a much deeper level in order to process a post-9/11 world. Project focuses less on documentaries and more on helping the interviewees process the world around them. Develops relationship with Dr. John Medina, Brain Science friend.
Demand for The 5000 Days Project grows, eventually covering kids from all six inhabitable continents.
Son Oliver is born, daughter Leah is adopted, and soon after parents pass on.
Prodigy Camp is born in an attempt to influence future influencers with the power and majesty of their own stories.
Demand leads to birth of StoryQ Technology which goes on to collect over 300,000 clips from people across the world. StoryQ methodology is scaled.
Teams grows, dozens of 5000 Days films produced, another book eventually written and speaking begins.
