Stephen Dorff Biography

This handsome, brown-eyed actor cut his teeth on sitcoms like Roseanne, Family Ties and Blossom before he rose to prominence with his award-winning portrayal of a boxing English schoolboy in his feature-film debut, The Power Of One (1992). Stephen Dorff, born in Atlanta Georgia to composer Steve Dorff and mother Nancy Dorff, has been acting since age 12, and has been featured in several TV movies beginning with In Love And War (1987, NBC). That same year, Dorff starred in the teen horror flick, The Gate.

Stephen also played the love stricken Fraser Sweeney in Rescue Me (1993); and the courageous John Wyatt in Judgment Night (1993). As doomed Beatle Stu Sutcliffe in Backbeat (1994), he garnered excellent press.

He has taken on many challenging roles, including a terrific turn as the cross-dressing Candy Darling in I Shot Andy Warhol (1996).

After that, Stephen was teamed up with a series of older-generation heavyweights: Harvey Keitel in City of Industry (1997); Jack Nicholson in Blood and Wine and Dennis Hopper in Space Truckers.

Stephen signed for a reported seven-figure sum to make Blade (1998) and won both an MTV Movie Award and a Blockbuster Entertainment AWard for Best/Favorite Villain. He then appeared in Entropy (1999) as a documentarian focusing on the career of U2 but returned to villain status in Cold Creek Manor (2003) opposite Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone. He again played a criminal in Public Enemies (2009), alongside Christian Bale and Johnny Depp.

Stephen has continued to carve complex characters across genres, proving his staying Power in the industry. In 2020, he delivered a powerful performance as an aging MMA champion in Embattled, depicting a father battling inner demons and his own son in the ring. Three years later, he starred as Clayton Minor, a relentless New Orleans mob enforcer in Mob Land (2023), where he shared the screen with John Travolta in the tense crime drama. That same year he led the action-packed movie King of Killers (2023), playing Robert Xane, and headlined Eddie Alcazar’s surreal sci-fi Divinity, which debuted at Sundance in 2023.

He also appeared in Tony Kaye’s dark satire The Trainer, which premiered in Rome in late 2024, alongside a star-studded cast including Julia Fox, Lenny Kravitz, and Paris Hilton. He plays Thomas Keller in the western Gunslingers (2025) opposite Nicolas Cage and Heather Graham, a role that places him at the heart of the movie. On television, he took on the brooding role of Ronald West in True Detective Season 3 (2019), playing an Arkansas state investigator whose career unravels across decades.

A resident of Venice, Los Angeles, Stephen enjoys vacationing in the South of France. He also plays piano and collects vintage guitars.

Filmography:

Bride Hard (2025)
Gunslingers (2025)
The Trainer (2024)
Clear Cut (2024)
Blood for Dust (2023)
Mob Land (2023)
King of Killers (2023)
Divinity (2023)
The Price We Pay (2022)
Paradise City (2022)
Old Henry (2021)
Traveling Light (2021)
Embattled (2020)
I'll Find You (2019)
True Detective: Season 3 (2019)
Don't Go (2018)
Leatherface (2017)
Jackals (2017)
Sex, Guaranteed (2017)
Wheeler (2017)
American Hero (2015)
The Debt (2015)
Officer Down (2013)
Heatstroke (2013)
The Motel Life (2012)
Brake (2012)
Zaytoun (2012)
Tomorrow You're Gone (2012)
The Iceman (2012)
Rites of Passage (2012)
Immortals (2011)
Carjacked (2011)
Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star (2011)
Somewhere (2010)
Public Enemies (2009)
Black Water Transit (2009)
Felon (2008)
.45 (2006)
World Trade Center (2006)
Shadowboxer (2005)
Alone in the Dark (2005)
Cold Creek Manor (2003)
Den of Lions (2003)
FearDotCom (2002)
Steal (2002)
Deuces Wild (2002)
Cecil B. Demented (2000)
Entropy (1999)
Earthly Possessions (1999)
Blade (1998)
City of Industry (1997)
Blood and Wine (1996)
I Shot Andy Warhol (1996)
Space Truckers (1996)
Backbeat (1994)
S.F.W. (1994)
Judgment Night (1993)
The Power of One (1992)
An Ambush of Ghosts (1993)
The Gate (1987)