Stephens, a boy of actors Maggie Smith and the late Robert Stephens, trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He began his film career by using a role of Othello within 1992's Orlando & regularly appears in television and stage.

He has gained eclat as a stage actor of distinction, notably swimming a title inside Corialanus shortly fallowing graduation from either RADA & Hamlet inside 2004. He recently played the role of a British army captain in the 2005 Indian moving picture, The Rising, portraying events in the Indian rebellion of 1857.