His interest in acting was awakened when he was still young but, thinking that it was an impossible dream to achieve, he decided on another of his passions, art, studying and working for several years as an interior designer. At 25 he finally dared to try acting and enrolled in the Bristol Old Vic Theater School, graduating at the age of 29.
At the beginning of the 90’s he began his career in front of the cameras filming several films for television, among them “The Return of the Native“(1994), whose cast headed Clive owen, Catherine Zeta-Jones Y Steven Mackintosh; He also participated in different British series.
During those years he worked on some feature films such as “Some Kind of Life” (nineteen ninety five); “Strange request“(1998), romantic comedy with Helena Bonham Carter, Kenneth branagh Y Gemma Jones; or “G: MT Greenwich Mean Time” (1999).
Finally in 2004 he began his international career, when he had to play the gentleman Dragonet in “King Arthur“, with Clive owen in the role of Arthur and seconded by Keira Knightley, Ioan Gruffudd Y Stellan Skarsgård. After filming a few other TV movies, the popularity of Stevenson began to grow with each new job. But his true fame came from the hand of the character of the legionnaire Titus Pullo, in the acclaimed series of HBO, “Rome“(2005 – 2007).
In recent years, the work of Stevenson has been featured in several feature films such as the violent “Punisher: War Zone“(2008), which had him as the protagonist;”The circus of strangers“(2009);”The book of Eli“(2010), who co-starred with Denzel Washington Y Mila Kunis; “Thor“(2011), with Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins Y Natalie Portman; or “The Three Musketeers (2011)“(2011), in which she played the role of Aramis.
Among his next jobs, Stevenson will star in the drama set in the 60’s “Jayne Mansfield’s Car“(2013), film written and directed by Billy bob thornton, and in which he will be accompanied by Kevin bacon Y John hurt; Y “GI Joe 2: Retaliation“(2012), action and science fiction film based on the popular video game and whose main protagonists will be Bruce Willis, Channing tatum Y Dwayne johnson.
In his personal life, Stevenson he is divorced from the english actress Ruth Gemmel, with whom he had married in 2005. He and his girlfriend, the Italian anthropologist Elisabetta carccia they had a son in 2007, whom they named Sebastiano Derek Stevenson. In addition to acting, the Irish actor continues to cultivate his love of art, his passion being watercolor painting.