Early career Steel began appearing in television commercials at the age of eleven. At the age of fifteen he purchased his first video camera to explore life on the other side of the lens. He made his first appearance on a television drama series in 1992 when, as a seventeen-year-old, he appeared in the award-winning crime series
Phoenix on Australia's
ABC-TV. Steel studied media and film studies at high school then moved to Sydney to pursue full-time work in the film industry. Steel's tenacity paid off when he scored a lighting job on the high-rating ABC program
Heartbreak High. This was the break Steel needed, giving him enough technical experience to work behind-the-scenes on bigger projects such as the feature films
Doing Time for Patsy Cline,
Dark City and
Oscar and Lucinda. Taking a side step in the position of Production Runner enabled Steel to absorb new skills at very close range to master filmmakers. The position offered an insight into everything from pre to post production, as he worked on
IMAX: The Story of a City with
Bruce Beresford;
First Daughter;
Bootmen with
Dein Perry;
Babe: Pig in the City with
George Miller;
The Matrix with the Wachowskis; and finally hit the jackpot with
Moulin Rouge! and director
Baz Luhrmann.
Home and Away Steel returned to appearing in front of the camera and into the spotlight. On 30 October 2000, Steel made his first appearance as
Jude Lawson in the high-rating nightly Australian soap
Home and Away. He played the popular character for three seasons and appeared in more than 160 episodes.
Short films In addition to his acting commitments on
Home and Away, Steel continued to develop several feature film projects while refining his directing skills on short films. He has since completed more than twenty short films including
Airhead starring Andrew Hill and ''Mum's the Word'' starring
Christopher Egan, both winners of best comedy at "The Shootout 24hour Filmmaking Festival". In 2002 he took his filmmaking to new extremes, when he rose to the challenge to make
Diagnosis Narcolepsy, a 16mm, 7-minute film, starring
Scott Major,
Erik Thomson,
Salvatore Coco,
Lara Cox,
Jeremy Kewley and
Deni Hines, and the film was completed in just 24 hours.
UK / USA After finishing
Home and Away, Steel went to the UK to play Prince Valentine in the pantomime "
Snow White". Steel subsequently starred in his first independent feature film
The Bitten Tongue, where he had fun playing a cross-dressing, money laundering gangster. His next project was another bad guy abducting
David Beckham's hairdresser in
Unfashionable Tramps followed by a successful season at the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe starring in
This is Soap and presenting two music festivals for
Five. Steel then went to the US and spent a few months studying acting at Playhouse West under the eye of founders
Jeff Goldblum and Robert Carnegie.
Return to Australia He returned home in 2004 to star in the cult theatrical production of
Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical to a sold-out season. He then went behind the camera again in his music video directorial debut by making "Shower the People" for Australian singing legend
Marcia Hines and
Belinda Emmett. He then flew to New Zealand to direct the short film
Pullin Roots starring
Beau Brady and
Clayton Watson.
Back to Europe 2005 saw Steel depart to the UK to revive his character of Prince Valentine in the pantomime
Snow White. It also marked the year that Steel made his West End Theatre debut. Steel headed up the cast of
The Vegemite Tales, an Australian play that is set in a
share-house in London. The play ran for 12 weeks to sellout audiences. Steel continued performing in theatre in
Serial Killers, a New Zealand play written by James Griffen performed at the Darby Playhouse. 2006 brought Steel back to Australia where he worked with director
Spike Jonze on the movie
Where the Wild Things Are.
Czech Republic In 2007 Steel moved to Prague in the Czech Republic. However, in August 2007 Steel briefly flew back to Australia for a supporting role in the indie feature film
Four of a Kind (aka
Disclosure) directed by
Fiona Cockrane. Returning to the Czech Republic, he was cast in the role of Fletcher in the much anticipated
Solomon Kane with
James Purefoy. The 2008 film was set in the late 16th Century during Puritan times and was based on the classic novel written by
Robert E. Howard. The film was entirely shot in Prague during the middle of winter. Steel scored his next big screen role in 2009 when he was cast in
Red Tails, which was produced by
George Lucas and stars
Cuba Gooding Jr and
Terrence Howard and was released in 2012.
Aruba In mid-2009, Steel was commissioned by national Aruban Broadcaster
ATV (Aruba) to produce and direct the television program
Stars of Tomorrow. The program was a reality drama series that follows the life of aspiring young actors living in
Aruba. ==Filmography==