Steven Barnes, originally from Los Angeles, is an American science fiction writer of novels and television scripts. He has written for shows such as Andromeda, The Twilight Zone, Stargate SG-1, and Baywatch.

He studies martial arts and has earned black belts in Judo and Karate, and has been practicing the Indonesian art of Pentjak Silat Serak since the mid-1990s. In addition to his writing for Star Trek, Star Wars, and his solo novels, he has also written several books with Larry Niven, most in their collaborative Dream Park series. He currently lives on the west coast of the United States with his family.