We were lucky to catch up with Stephen Rafferty recently and have shared our conversation below.

Stephen, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

It all started back in 2010; I was in school at the time and when I was a kid; the two things I wanted to do originally was to be a professional wrestler or be a computer programmer and design various video games. I gratefully have had the chance to pursue both ventures at different points of my career but in 2010; the focus was more on game programming.

At my school, there was a bulletin posting from a guy name Bryan aka Beege from a company called Abysmal Essence where they were looking to train programmers to work on their catalogue of projects. I signed up and started doing training courses. Most notably, the company was known for their work on the MOBA game Robot Unicorn Attack from Adult Swim games. After doing a few sessions; I realized that computer programming was not for me. After making the realization; I had to figure out what I want to pursue next and after watching a series of late night talk shows such as Conan O’ Brien; I realize that I could do something like that in a comedic sense online through YouTube and that is one of the earliest times I pursue a creative path at the time to become a youtuber.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I am a multi-talented media personality and content creator. Originally starting as a YouTube comedian and entertainer, I have worked within the commercial, digital, film and television spaces for 12 years so far.

I have gratefully had the chance to collaborate directly with various companies and industry figures including working with Billiam, Chris Van Vliet, Guinness World Records, NBC Sports, TEDx & WATSKY. My skillset originally came with an expertise behind the scenes within content creation, graphic design, marketing, photography, and video production. These talents and skills allow me to create designs, projects & strategies for prominent figures including Alessandra Sironi, CAROLENA, Chris Jericho, Jessie Kamea, Mike SB, Poppy, The Cliff Floyd Foundation, Tony Hawk, and many others.

Some cool things I have done over the years include having a Guinness World Record for the most straws in the hair at one time from 2014-2016, doing an official TEDx talk, creating web-shows, short films, podcasts and many videos over the years along with being an author of my three critically acclaimed comedy books; Fifty Ridiculous Drawings and Funny Sayings in Less Than Fifty Pages, Young Face Stories and Other Awkward Tales and Mini: A Book of Short Thoughts. Most recently in 2022 so far; I finished my third season of my interview show; These Are Questions and recently release my first card game entitled No Cheese, No Coin.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

One that comes to mind is how I got the chance to perform for TEDx. I got the chance to do a spoken word called state of time which was a performance on how time affects the human psyche in a fast-paced motivational type speech. Originally, I auditioned to do a formal TEDx talk twice and got turned down both times in 2014 and 2015. Third time was the charm in 2016 and to get that chance; I had to perform the entire set to the proctors organizing the event beforehand and then got told that you will only have three minutes to condense and perform. For me, three minutes was all I needed. Doing TEDxNSU shows my resilience to get something that I genuinely wanted in my career.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think often, non-creatives have a perception that they cannot be creative and only that creative people can be creative but that is not true at all. Many creative type people including myself came from backgrounds where creativity is not the focus coming from an analytical and data driven background. As mentioned, I was originally at one point a computer science programmer that focus on data sets and numeric codes. Many creatives start in non-creative places, so I think that is a misconception. Creativity can come from anywhere, any moment and from anyone.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.srafferty.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raffnation
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvvjcxOnM4uADQKVnfSa-3Q/discussion
• Other: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/raffnation Buy No Cheese, No Coin Here: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/no-cheese-no-coin

Image Credits
Images Courtesies: Viviana Garcia Krista Lee Photos TGR Productions Guinness World Records TEDxNSU