Steven Andrew Soderbergh is an Oscar-winning American movie director (for Traffic, in 2000), as well as a producer, screenwriter, cinematographer and editor.
Soderbergh discovered filmaking as a teenager, directing short Super 8 mm films. After graduating from high school he moved to Hollywood and found work as a freelance film editor. His first break came when he directed the Grammy-nominated concert video 9012 Live for the rock band Yes in 1985.
Major recognition came with the release of Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), which he wrote in eight days. The independent film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and became a worldwide hit.
Sex, Lies, and Videotape was followed by a series of box office disappointments: Kafka, starring Jeremy Irons as Franz Kafka; King of the Hill (1993); Underneath (1995); and Schizopolis (1996). He had a hit with Out of Sight (1998), based on an Elmore Leonard novel and starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez. The film marked the beginning of an artistic partnership between Clooney and Soderbergh.
Soderbergh then made The Limey (1999) and Erin Brockovich (2000), starring Julia Roberts in her Oscar-winning role as a single mother taking on industry in a civil action. Also in 2000, Soderbergh released Traffic, a drama about the drug trade which was a major hit and earned him an Academy Award for Best Director.
George Clooney appeared in Ocean's Eleven (2001) and Solaris (2002), a remake of an unusual science fiction story. In 2004 Soderbergh made Ocean's Twelve (2004).
In 2006, Soderbergh released Bubble, a very low budget ($1.6 million) movie starring amateur actors.
The director has completed Guerrilla, starring Benicio Del Toro, who won an Academy Award for his performance in Traffic.
Soderbergh co-owns the film production company Section Eight Productions with George Clooney. Section Eight has produced the critical hits Far From Heaven, Insomnia, and Syriana as well as the Clooney-directed films Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Good Night, and Good Luck.
Soderbergh often acts as his own director of photography under the alias of Peter Andrews and occasionally as his own editor under Mary Ann Bernard. His most recent film is The Good German, a romantic drama set in post-war Berlin starring Cate Blanchett and George Clooney. | 
