After graduating from the University of Liverpool Pavlou applied to approximately six hundred media jobs without success. He wrote the script for the film
The 51st State (known as
Formula 51 in the United States) while he was living in
Rochester, Kent, and working for a local wine shop. The film was released in 2001 and starred
Samuel L. Jackson and
Robert Carlyle. For the British DVD release Pavlou did the audio commentary and included a featurette titled, "Who the Hell is Stel Pavlou." In 2001 Pavlou published his debut novel,
Decipher, through Simon & Schuster. The novel centers upon Atlantis and received reviews from
The Independent, and
Cryptologia. He published a second novel,
Gene, in 2005 and in 2017, released the first book in his children's fiction series
Daniel Coldstar. In 2021, Pavlou hosted a television show on the
Discovery Channel titled
Hunting Atlantis, which has been criticised by professional archaeologists for pseudoscience and contributing to false perceptions of history and archaeology. ==Selected works==