Born Sophie Dani�le Sylvie Maupu in Paris, France, her career started at age 14 when Claude Pinoteau cast her in the starring role of the teenager movie La Boum (1980). Overnight, the film elevated her to teenage idol status in France and many other European countries. In 1983, she was honored with a Cesar Award (France's equivalent of an Oscar) for "Most Promising Actress".

Two years later, the less funny but more sentimental sequel La Boum 2 (1982) increased her popularity further. At age 18, she played a more demanding role in Fort Saganne (1984), in which her co-stars were G�rard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve. The same year she played with Jean-Paul Belmondo in Joyeuses P�ques (1984).

She showed her dramatic skills in films directed by her long-time companion, director Andrzej Zulawski: L'Amour braque (1985), Mes nuits sont plus belles que vos jours (1989), La Note bleue (1991), and La Fid�lit� (2000).

Marceau rose to international stardom playing the part of Princess Isabelle in Mel Gibson's historical epic Braveheart (1995). Following this success, she appeared in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999), and as Bond girl/villain Elektra King in the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999).

Marceau wrote a semi-autobiographical novel Telling Lies (2001), and tried directing as well. Making her directorial debut in a feature film, Sophie Marceau was awarded Best Director by the jury of the 2002 Montreal World Film Festival for her film Parlez-moi d'amour (Speak to Me of Love), starring Judith Godr�che. Prior to this, in 1995, she had made a 9-minute short film, L'Aube � l'envers, which also starred her friend Godr�che.