Steven Kunes was born and raised in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and attended New York University, where he received B.A. degrees in Creative Writing and Comparative Literature in 1978.

In 1983, at age 26, TV legend Norman Lear hired Kunes to write and develop half-hour comedies for his company, Embassy Television. This led to assignments in the areas on one-hour TV, movies-of-the-week, a five-year stint writing monologues for Johnny Carson, and eventually to motion pictures, where Kunes became one of Hollywood's most successful doctors.

Presently, Kunes is the creator and executive producer of "Over My Dead Body," an award-winning original comedy series now streaming on Amazon Prime. His novel "Uncle Jerry to Win," his collection of plays "Four on the Floor: Four Plays" and his collection of screenplays "Pick Six: Six Screenplays" were all published by Back Bay Books/Little Brown and Company in 2018.

On November 14, 2021, Kunes presented a TEDx talk "Square One at 60" in Philadelphia.

Kunes divides his time between Los Angeles and Bucks County, Pennsylvania.