Steven Soderbergh was born on January 14, 1963 in Atlanta, GA. USA as the second of six children, and while still at very young age his family moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where his father, Peter Soderbergh, was a professor and the dean of the College of Education at Louisiana State University. While still in high school, around the age of 15, Soderbergh enrolled in the university's film animation class and began making short 16mm films with secondhand equipment, one of which was the short film "Janitor." After graduating high school, he went to Hollywood, where he worked as a freelance editor. His time there was brief and shortly after he returned home and continued making short films and writing scripts.

His first major break was in 1986 when the rock group "Yes" assigned him to shoot a full-length concert film for the band which eventually earned him a Grammy nomination for the video Yes: 9012 Live. Following this achievement, Soderbergh filmed Winston, the short subject film that he would later expand into Sex, Lies, and Videotape, a film that earned him the Cannes Film Festivals Palme d'Or Award, the Independent Spirit Award for Best Director and an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Over the next six years he was married (then divorced) to actress Betsy Brantley and had a daughter named Sarah, born in 1990.

Also during this time he made such films as Kafka, King of the Hill, Underneath and Gray's Anatomy, which many believed to be disappointments. In 1998, Soderbergh made Out of Sight, his most critically and commercially successful film since Sex, Lies, and Videotape. Then in 2000 Soderbergh directed two major motion pictures that are now his most successful films to date: Erin Brockovich and Traffic. These films were both nominated for Best Picture Oscars at the 2001 Academy Awards and gave him the first twin director Oscar nomination in almost 60 years and the first ever win. He won the Oscar for Best Director for Traffic at the 2001 Oscars.


Father, Peter Soderbergh, was a professor and dean of the College of Education at Louisiana State University where Steven took some classes. In 2001, he became the first director in 62 years to have twin Best Director Oscar nominations for Erin Brockovich (2000) and Traffic (2000). The last director to do that was Michael Curtiz with twin nominations for Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and Four Daughters (1938). Soderbergh topped Curtiz by going on to win the Oscar for Traffic (2000). Daughter Sarah Soderbergh (born in February 1990) with Betsy Brantley. Ranked #39 in Premiere's 2003 annual Power 100 List. Had ranked #35 in 2002. Was offered the chance to direct Quiz Show (1994), with Tim Robbins in the role of Charles Van Doren. Was member of the dramatic jury at the Sundance Film Festival in 1990. He and his producing partner George Clooney have decided to close down their Section Eight production company after six years of working partnership. [August 2006].