Name Stephen Stohn Role Lawyer | ||
 | ||
Awards Gemini Award for Best Children's or Youth Fiction Program or Series Nominations Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program Similar People Linda Schuyler, Stefan Brogren, Yan Moore, Aaron Martin, Cory Lee Profiles | ||
An introduction to stephen stohn and canadian music and television
John Stephen Stohn (born May 8, 1948) is a Canadian-based, American-born entertainment lawyer and television producer. He is best known for being executive producer of the teen drama series Degrassi. He is currently the president of Epitome Pictures Inc., which he and his wife Linda Schuyler founded and which was sold to DHX Media in 2014.
Contents
- An introduction to stephen stohn and canadian music and television
- Songwriter stephen stohn on his songwriting process
- Career
- Degrassi
- Other work
- Legal background
- Personal life
- Awards
- References
Songwriter stephen stohn on his songwriting process
Career
Stohn's work in the entertainment industry commenced with part-time appearances as a performing artist, continuing with active work as a songwriter (including two songs that reached the Canadian Top-10, Maybe Your Heart and Once In A Long Time, co-written with Christopher Ward), and a primary career as an entertainment and copyright lawyer since he was called to the Ontario Bar in 1979.
Trent University (in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada) had barely been built when Stohn first attended there. He helped found Trent's student newspaper.
Stohn helped found the radio station at Trent, now CFFF-FM, along with Peter Northrop and Christopher Ward. In the early 1990s, he helped found the Songwriters Association of Canada along with Donna Murphy, Terry McManus and internationally acclaimed songwriter Eddie Schwartz. Stohn has executive-produced two feature films, Me? and The Clown Murders. He was also executive producer of Riverdale, English Canada's first prime-time soap opera, and of the lifestyle TV series Savoir Faire (hosted by Nik Manojlovich) and Room Service (hosted by Sarah Richardson).
Degrassi
In early 2000, Linda Schuyler and Yan Moore were developing a new teen TV series with the working title Ready, Willing and Wired, based on the already success. One day Yan came up with the brainstorm that baby Emma, who was born to the then 8th-grade student Spike Nelson in Degrassi Junior High, would be the right age now to be attending high school, and why not make her a main character in Ready, Willing and Wired thus turning the new series into a sequel to the original Degrassi. Inspired by his love for the original Star Trek sci-fi TV series, which had spun into Star Trek: The Next Generation, Stohn suggested Degrassi: The Next Generation as the title for the new sequel series. By autumn 2001 the title remained, and Degrassi: The Next Generation made its first appearance on air.
Stohn co-wrote the opening theme music for Degrassi: The Next Generation with Jim McGrath and Jody Colero. He is also the executive producer of Alexz Johnson's debut solo album Voodoo, and the executive producer of all the various Degrassi soundtracks and Instant Star soundtracks.
Other work
For nearly 20 years, until 2009, he was executive producer of the telecast of Canada's music awards show, The Juno Awards, and during that period was a director and then Chair of Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the organization responsible for The Juno Awards. He was also Chair of MusiCounts, a charity associated with The Juno Awards, which among other things distributes musical instruments to schools in need.
From 2004 to 2008 Stohn executive produced the teen drama television series Instant Star about a young woman (played by Alexz Johnson) who wins a singer/songwriter contest. In 2011 and 2012 he executive produced the television series The L.A. Complex (formerly called Highland Gardens) for Bell Media in Canada and The CW in the U.S., about young Canadians dreaming of fame and fortune while struggling to survive in an apartment-style hotel in Los Angeles.
His most recent projects have been the family mystery series Open Heart for YTV in Canada and TeenNick in the U.S. and the latest incarnation of Degrassi, namely Degrassi: Next Class for Family Channel in Canada and Netflix worldwide.
Legal background
Stohn's industry experience includes being a partner for 10 years in Canada's largest law firm, McCarthy Tétrault. He graduated from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law (J.D. 1977) and Trent University (B.A. 1969). He is a founding partner in the Canadian entertainment law firm Stohn Hay Cafazzo Dembroski Richmond LLP, where he provides strategic legal advice to performers, advertising agencies, merchandisers, recording artists, songwriters, multimedia/internet creators, broadcasters and film and television producers. He and two other partners in the firm constitute three of the fourteen entertainment lawyers named in the 2014 Lexpert American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada.
Personal life
Stohn was born in Denver, Colorado. He is married to Degrassi creator Linda Schuyler; they have one son, Max.