I used a mix of answers like this:
public static Stream ToStream(this string str, Encoding enc = null)
{
enc = enc ?? Encoding.UTF8;
return new MemoryStream(enc.GetBytes(str ?? ""));
}
And then I use it like this:
String someStr="This is a Test";
Encoding enc = getEncodingFromSomeWhere();
using (Stream stream = someStr.ToStream(enc))
{
// Do something with the stream....
}