Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish former professional snooker player and a current commentator and pundit. One of the most successful players in snooker history, he turned professional in 1985, aged 16, and rose rapidly through the snooker world rankings, reaching number four in the world by the end of his third professional season. He won his first World Snooker Championship in 1990, aged 21 years and 106 days, making him the sport's youngest world champion, a record he still holds. He won seven world titles between 1990 and 1999, setting a new modern-era record that stood outright until Ronnie O'Sullivan equalled it in 2022. He also won the Masters six times and the UK Championship five times for a career total of 18 Triple Crown tournament wins, a total exceeded only by O'Sullivan's 23. His total of 36 ranking titles is second only to O'Sullivan's 41, while his nine seasons as world number one were the most by any player under the annual ranking system used until 2010.

Hendry's five consecutive Masters titles between 1989 and 1993 and five consecutive world titles between 1992 and 1996 remain records in the modern era. His 36 consecutive victories in ranking events between March 1990 and January 1991 and his 29 consecutive wins at the Crucible between 1992 and 1997 also remain modern-era records. One of three players to have won all three Triple Crown events in a single season, he is the only player to have achieved the feat twice, in the 1989–90 and 1995–96 seasons. His 777 career century breaks include 11 maximum breaks, putting him in third place behind O'Sullivan (17) and John Higgins (13) for the most officially recognised maximums in professional competition. Awarded an MBE in 1994, he was twice named the BBC Scotland Sports Personality of the Year, in 1987 and 1996.

Hendry's form became less consistent after his sixth world title in 1996 and his career declined in the 2000s, his play increasingly affected by the yips. He reached the last of his nine world finals at the 2002 World Championship but lost in a deciding frame to Peter Ebdon. He won his last ranking title at the 2005 Malta Cup and reached his last ranking final at the 2006 UK Championship, where he was again defeated by Ebdon. During the 2011–12 season, he fell out of the top 16 in the world rankings for the first time in 23 years. He qualified for the 2012 World Championship, where he made his 27th consecutive Crucible appearance, but he announced his retirement from professional snooker at age 43 following a 2–13 defeat to Stephen Maguire in the quarter-finals. After almost nine years in retirement, he returned to professional competition during the 2020–21 season under an invitational tour card. He played sporadically on the professional tour over four seasons but secured only three wins in 20 professional matches and retired again after the 2023–24 season. Hendry has also competed on the World Seniors Tour and has twice been a semi-finalist at the World Seniors Championship.

Stephen Gordon Hendry's parents, Gordon Hendry and Irene Rixson, met as teenagers in the late 1960s while working at a woollen merchant in Edinburgh. Irene, who worked as a secretary, became pregnant, and she and Gordon moved into a bedroom of his grandmother's flat in St Leonard's, Edinburgh. Irene was 18 years old when she gave birth to Hendry on 13 January 1969. The family subsequently moved to Gorgie. Hendry's younger brother Keith was born in 1972, and the family moved to Baberton Mains. His father was then working in the fruit and vegetable wholesale business.

By the late 1970s, Hendry's father and a business partner were running three greengrocer's shops, located in Inverkeithing, Dalgety Bay, and Dunfermline. The family moved to a bungalow in Dalgety Bay when Hendry was nine and lived there for the next six years. He attended Inverkeithing High School. He started playing snooker when his parents bought him a miniature snooker table for Christmas in 1981. He subsequently began playing on full-sized tables at Maloco's Snooker Hall and the Classic Snooker Centre in Dunfermline. He made his first century break, a 102, at the Classic Snooker Centre several months after his 13th birthday in 1982. At this time his snooker hero was Jimmy White, and he later wrote that when he saw White at an exhibition match, he felt that "The charm and skill of the man is undeniable and yet, for all my attacking play and determination to clear the table quickly, I'm beginning to realise that I don't share Jimmy’s colourful personality."

When Hendry was 15, his parents separated. Due to financial difficulties caused by his father's problem gambling, they had to sell their house and business interests. Hendry's mother moved with her two sons to a council house in her hometown of Kirkliston, and Hendry began attending Queensferry High School. His father moved to a small flat in nearby Broxburn but travelled frequently with Hendry to snooker tournaments around the country.

Hendry's first tournament win was an under-16 "Stars of the Future" event at a Pontins holiday camp in Prestatyn, Wales when he was 14. After winning both the Scottish and British Under-16 Championships, he made his first televised appearance in 1983 on Junior Pot Black, where he defeated Nick Pearce but then lost to Steve Ventham in the semi-finals. In 1984, he became the youngest ever winner of the Scottish Amateur Championship. At the 1984 World Amateur Snooker Championship he became the youngest player ever to participate in that championship. He finished sixth-placed in his qualifying group of nine participants, and did not qualify for the final stages. He discussed his snooker career with his father and they agreed that he would seek to turn professional as they felt, according to Hendry, that he "couldn't learn anything as an amateur ... If I wanted to learn I had to be in with the big boys."

In February 1985, his application for professional status was accepted by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Two months later, he retained the Scottish Amateur Championship. Aged 16 years, he was then the sport's youngest professional. From the age of 14 he was managed by Ron Clover, who also managed darts player Jocky Wilson, but when he was 16 Ian Doyle and Jim Marley took over his management after paying Clover £2,000. Doyle, who was influenced by Barry Hearn's style of management, arranged a series of money matches against leading players for Hendry, mirroring the way that Hearn had arranged matches for Steve Davis before he turned professional.