Steven Cuitlahuac Melendez is the second son of famed Peanuts animator Bill Meléndez. He was born in Los Angeles where he gained his early experience in film as an editor with Bill Melendez Productions working on an early Peanuts special, Babar the Elephant, a suite of commercials and the feature film A Boy Named Charlie Brown.

Melendez moved to London in 1970 to establish the studio's European office where he produced numerous television and cinema commercials, the feature film Dick Deadeye, and the animated adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, for which he won an Emmy.