Cooper Rees-Jones, Co-founder of Stepney Studios, has been named a finalist for the 2026 InDaily South Australia 40 Under 40 Awards. The gala will be held at Adelaide Oval on 11 June.
Cooper founded Stepney Studios alongside his business partner and co-founder, Thomas Schaefer. The two have run the studio together from day one. The 40 Under 40 nod is Cooper’s, but the five years of work behind it is theirs.
The person behind the finalist nod
Anyone who’s spent time around Cooper knows he’s not one to apply for things like this. He has been pivotal and at the helm of all commercial and strategic direction and positioning of Stepney Studios, and he’s the one quietly, and sometimes abruptly, managing people and sorting logistics in the background or on a shoot day. He’s the one setting up chairs at Stepney Supper while the room fills with people who came because he and Thomas asked them to.
What sets Cooper apart isn’t any single skill. It’s the way he moves through a room. He’s a people person in the truest sense: he remembers names, he follows up, he asks the second question after the first one lands, and he genuinely wants to know the answer. Whether it’s a client, a freelancer, a Stepney Supper guest, or someone on his own team, Cooper treats the conversation like it matters. Because to him, it does.
That’s where the studio’s momentum actually comes from. Relationships. The client who came back because Cooper stayed in touch. The collaborator who said yes because Cooper made them feel welcome. The team member who stuck around because Cooper took the time. He holds the studio together by holding the people in it.
Cooper is ultimately driven by the belief that his gratification and purpose come from providing a foundation and opportunities for others, watching them grow and thrive. You see it in how he hires, how he briefs, and how he hands work over. People who pass through Stepney don’t just get a job, they get a shot at something bigger than the one they walked in with.
That’s the version of Cooper most people meet first. What takes a bit longer to see is the work behind it, and the partnership behind that.
Five years of building foundations
Stepney Studios is five years old. It started in a modest office in Stepney with big ideas and long nights, and has since grown into a fully fledged creative production house in Kent Town. The team is four people strong, the work spans TV commercials, corporate brand films, and long-term retainer partnerships across education, healthcare, government, and retail, and the studio itself has been rebuilt to match, with a purpose-designed shoot space, a master edit suite, and a podcasting room downstairs.
None of that happens by accident. It happens because two people, over and over, have chosen to do the unglamorous work of building something that lasts; it takes discipline and constant refinement of the systems and processes. Holding the first meeting with a nervous new client and making them feel like they’ve landed in the right hands.
That’s been the work. Not the bit you see, the bit underneath.
Stepney Supper and what’s next
The past twelve months have brought a shift. Stepney Supper, the quarterly networking event Cooper and Thomas started hosting, has become a genuine moment in Adelaide’s creative and business community. Not because it’s slick, but because it’s real. People leave having actually met someone. Conversations carry into the following week. New collaborations begin.
Stepney Supper isn’t a solo effort, and it never has been. Hannah from HPC has been central to pulling the event together behind the scenes, shaping the structure and making sure the night runs the way it needs to. Sam Davies and Justina Gardiner have hosted, sitting down with each night’s panel and drawing out the conversations that make the room lean in. And the panellists themselves, every one of them, have given their time, their thinking, and their honesty to a room full of people they’d never met. The event only works because they agreed to show up.
For Cooper, Stepney Supper has been a personal turning point as much as a business one. Standing in front of a room and speaking isn’t a small thing for someone who’d rather let the work speak. But he’s kept showing up, alongside Thomas, because the value of the room depends on the hosts being in it.
And this is the part that’s genuinely exciting. Stepney Supper is still early. The rooms are getting bigger, the panels are getting sharper, and the ideas for where it goes next are already in motion. The next twelve months will see the format stretch, the guest list broaden, and the event become something Adelaide’s creative and business community can plan their year around. We’re only just getting started.
What the finalist nod actually means
The 40 Under 40 isn’t a popularity contest. It’s South Australia’s annual snapshot of who is building the next decade of business, research, and community leadership in this state. Judged across a broad set of criteria that emphasises impact over revenue alone, the awards recognise founders, researchers, artists, and change-makers shaping the state’s future.
For a small independent studio co-founded and co-run by two people in Kent Town, a finalist nod means the work is being seen. It means five years of quiet building, done together, have registered somewhere outside the studio walls. That matters.
From all of us
Coops, from Thomas and the rest of the team, we’re proud of you.
The 2026 winners will be announced at Adelaide Oval on 11 June.
