Soderbergh was born to parents with Swedish ancestry. As a child, his family migrated from Atlanta to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where his father became dean of education at Louisiana State University. There he discovered filmaking as a teenager, directing short Super 8 mm films with equipment borrowed from LSU students. [1] Rather than attending LSU, Soderbergh tried his luck in Hollywood after graduating from high school; he worked as a game show scorer and cue card holder to make ends meet, and eventually found work as a freelance film editor. [2] His big break came when he directed the Grammy-nominated concert video 9012 Live for the rock band Yes in 1985. [3]

It wasn't until he came back to Baton Rouge that he conceived the idea for sex, lies, and videotape (1989), which he wrote in eight days. The independent film won the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, became a worldwide commercial success and � along with Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction � greatly contributed to the 1990s independent film revolution. Movie critic Roger Ebert dubbed Soderbergh the "poster boy of the Sundance generation." [4]

Sex, lies, and videotape was followed by a series of low-budget box-office disappointments: Kafka, a biopic starring Jeremy Irons as Franz Kafka; King of the Hill (1993), a critically acclaimed Depression-era drama; Underneath (1995), a remake of Robert Siodmak's 1949 film noir Criss Cross; and Schizopolis (1996), a comedy which he starred in, wrote, composed, and shot as well as directed. Making good on his Schizopolis-inspired "artistic wake-up call," his commercial slump ended in 1998 with Out of Sight, a stylized adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez. [5] The film was both widely praised and a box-office smash, reaffirming Soderbergh's potential and sparking the beginnings of a lucrative artistic partnership between Clooney and Soderbergh.

Soderbergh followed up on the success of Out of Sight by making another crime caper, The Limey (1999), starring veteran actors Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda. The film was well-received, but not as much as Erin Brockovich (2000), a "Rocky movie" he directed, starring Julia Roberts in her Oscar-winning role as a single mother taking on industry in a civil action. [6] Later that year, Soderbergh released his most ambitious project yet (with a running time of 147 minutes, the film had 135 speaking parts set in eight different cities), Traffic, a social drama which featured an ensemble cast. Traffic became his most acclaimed movie since sex, lies, videotape, and earned him an Academy Award for Best Director.

Ocean's Eleven (2001), featuring an all-star cast and flashy aesthetics, is Soderbergh's highest grossing movie to date, grossing more than $183 million. [7] The film's star, George Clooney, subsequently appeared in Solaris (2002), marking the third time the two have headlined a film. Soderbergh moved on to docudramas with K Street, a ten-part political HBO series. Ocean's Twelve (2004), a sequel to Ocean's Eleven, followed.

In 2006, Soderbergh raised eyebrows with Bubble, a $1.6 million film featuring a cast of unprofessional actors. It opened in selected theaters and HDNet simultaneously, and four days later on DVD. Industry heads are reportedly watching how the film performs, as its unusual release schedule could have implications for future feature films. [8] [9] Theater-owners, who have recently been suffering from dropping attendance rates, do not welcome so-called "day-and-date" movies. [10] National Association of Theatre Owners president and CEO John Fithian indirectly called the film's release model "the biggest threat to the viability of the cinema industry today." [11] Soderbergh's response to such criticism: "I don't think it's going to destroy the movie-going experience any more than the ability to get takeout has destroyed the restaurant business." The film did poor business both at the box office and on the home video market. [12] Nevertheless, Soderbergh is on contract to deliver five more day-and-date movies.

"I've always gotten along with them," says Soderbergh of actors, "I try and make sure they're OK, and when they're in the zone, I leave them alone. I don't get in their way."; his non-intrusive directorial style has attracted repeat performances by many high-profile movies stars. [13] Julia Roberts had supporting roles in Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve, and Full Frontal, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her lead in Erin Brockovich. Benicio Del Toro, who also won an Academy Award for his work in a Soderbergh film (Traffic), is starring in the upcoming Guerrilla. Other frequent sightings in Soderbergh's filmography include character actors Luis Guzm�n (Out of Sight, The Limey, and Traffic) and Don Cheadle (Out of Sight, Traffic, Ocean's Eleven, and Ocean's Twelve). But the actor who played the leading role in no less than four of his films is George Clooney, with whom he co-owns the film production company, Section Eight Productions. Section Eight 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 and Clooney are reportedly planning to shut down Section Eight by the end of 2006.

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. While shooting Traffic, Soderbergh realized that WGA regulations prohibit a cinematographer or editor to be credited over a screenwriter, so he uses pseudonyms to assign credit to himself.

As of 30 April 2006, his projects in production include Guerrilla, starring Benicio Del Toro as Che Guevara, and Ocean's Thirteen. The Good German a romantic drama set in post-war Berlin starring Cate Blanchett and George Clooney, has recently wrapped.