Biography:

Thomas Stephan was born in Dornreichenbach, near Leipzig, in 1959. After his vocational training with a secondary-school diploma, he volunteered at the opera house at the Landesbühne Sachsen, Radebeul, in 1980/81. In 1981, Stephan joined the DEFA Studio for Animation Films in Dresden as a director and animator. The same year, he also started an external study program at the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen in Potsdam-Babelsberg. During his tenure at the studio, he directed three short puppet films. While Autotraum (1983) and Noah (1990) are timeless parables of human behaviors, Kubus im Rock is an experiment with colors, shadows, and forms supported by a notable music score by Andreas Zöllner.

After the DEFA Studio for Animation Films was closed in 1992, Thomas Stephan picked up a new career as a social and media educator.