Stefen Harris was born in Tokoroa and grew up in Rotorua with his Te Arawa Nanna. He is a frontline police officer having served for over 30 years in Wellington, Christchurch and Nelson. He has been a frontline uniform officer for the whole of his career and in 2017 was awarded the Commissioner's Commendation for Bravery. Stef Harris filmed his debut novel, The Waikikamukau Conspiracy, as a first time film director in 2006. Retitled as The Waimate Conspiracy the film went on to win four best film awards around the world including Dreamspeakers Canada, DigiSPAA Screen Producers of Australia, Wairoa Maori Film Festival and the New Zealand Screen Directors Guild, Best Digital Feature Film 2007. Harris was awarded the 2009 Air New Zealand Scolarship in Film and was mentored by New Zealand film director Martin Campbell on the Boston set of the Mel Gibson film, Edge of Darkness. The scholarship experience in Boston was eventually instrumental in the creation of both DOUBLE JEOPARDY and a new film project, Blue Moon. Following on from the Boston film scholarship, an early draft of DOUBLE JEOPARDY was written as part of the Hagley Writers Institute programme. Harris was mentored by Morrin Rout and Frankie Macmillan for the year long course writing a chapter a week to meet the course completion deadline. He graduated in second place with a completed first draft. Harris' arthouse feature film, Blue Moon, was shot over one week on an iPhone 7 and went on to win numerus best film awards in festivals around the world including in Texas, New York, Oslo, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Barcelona and Sydney. Blue Moon was offically selected for the prestigious Cannes Antipodes Film Festival and screened in Cannes in May 2022. Stef Harris is married and lives in Motueka. He has four adult children and eight grandchildren. He has a lifelong interest in martial arts and is a member of Seido karate. DOUBLE JEOPARDY is Stef Harris's third published novel.