Steven Artels was born in Tanzania in 1966. When he was 1 year old, his Belgian parents moved to Geneva, where he was naturalized as a teenager. After obtaining his higher education entrance qualifications (scientific section), he studied history and journalism, but his interest soon turned towards the theater and cinema.
After three years of studies at INSAS (Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacle) in Brussels, he joined the Swiss-French television channel (then RTS), where he worked as a film director for several broadcasts. In 2003, he became one of the producers of the information magazine “Temps Présent”, and then, in 2009, he joined the production team for the discovery and travel programme “Passe-moiles jumelles” (Hand me the binoculars). In 2012, he returned to filmmaking by joining the “Temps Présent”team, where he is still working.
Among the films he made for RTS, “Tchernobyl, ma centrale bien-aimée” won the first prize at the international festival of reports of current affairs (FIGRA) in Le Touquet in 1996; “GIs, cauchemar d’Irak” obtained the Premis Actual Award in Barcelona in 2005 and an honourable mention at the Caméra Obscura Festival in Poland.