Stephanie Ann Hill was born in West Lafayette, Indiana, the only child to Luella Hill (Burton), a homemaker, and John Evans Hill (1945-2015), a tabletop war-game designer and military analyst for the US Government. Her mother's family grew up on a farm with a strict Protestant up-bring. Her father grew up in an Irish Catholic family, raised by his biological mother, Marian Whitley (Evans) and step-father, Edward F. Whitley; his biological father was killed in World War II when his mother was pregnant with him.Stephanie took one course in drama in high school, but other than that, she had no acting experience prior to 2011. Stephanie holds a bachelor's degree in communication, a master's degree in library science and completed doctoral credits in pursuit of an doctorate in education. Stephanie has worked as a technical writer, librarian, special ed teacher, philanthropist, publicist, Internet marketer and freelance website designer.