Steven Soderbergh has often been credited with creating the late 20th-century boom in independent filmmaking and a flood of other indie moviemakers have followed in his wake. Born in Atlanta, Soderbergh spent his formative years in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and cut his teeth making short Super-8mm films including Rapid Eye Movement and Winston. His first break came in 1986 when the rock group 'Yes' enlisted him to shoot concert footage which he eventually shaped into the Grammy-nominated video 9012Live.

Soderbergh's first feature project was the finely crafted, low-budget ($1.2 million) drama, Sex, Lies and Videotape. After premiering at the United States Film Festival (the forerunner of Sundance), the film scored a double triumph at Cannes, winning the Palme d'Or for Soderbergh and the Best Actor award for James Spader. With the requisite buzz, the film opened as a box-office hit, later earning an Oscar nomination for its screenplay and establishing Soderbergh as one of the most promising young filmmakers of his generation.

His subsequent films include Kafka, starring Jeremy Irons, King of the Hill and The Underneath. Soderbergh then returned home to Baton Rouge and shot Schizopolis for $250,000, employing used equipment, a bare-bones crew and casting himself in a dual lead role. Next, he took ten days to shoot Gray's Anatomy, creating the most cinematic of the filmed Spalding Gray monologues. He then returned to mainstream movies, directing the adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel Out of Sight, starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, which received glowing reviews and was a surprise winner of several end-of-the-year critics' prizes.

Soderbergh then made The Limey, with cinematic icons Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda in leading roles. His renowned visual panache and strong handle on the material elevated the gangster story to a work of art. His immediate follow-up, Erin Brockovich starring Julia Roberts, became the director's most successful picture, grossing over $125 million. He also directed and shot Traffic in 2000 and it was the perfect synthesis between the director's commercial films and his experimental ones. This one-two punch brought Soderbergh numerous end-of-the-year prizes and he received a Director Oscar for Traffic. His next project was the all-star remake of Ocean's Eleven, featuring George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. In 2002, Soderbergh took a different approach to his craft and directed the non-narrative Full Frontal starring Julia Roberts. Next came the remake of the sci-fi classic Solaris with George Clooney in the lead and most recently the sequel Ocean's Twelve.

Soderbergh and Clooney's joint production company Section Eight have also developed television series, frequently with one of the two principals behind the camera on individual episodes: Beginning with the Washington insider drama K Street then the improvised Unscripted which follows the ups and downs of a trio of actors working their way through Hollywood.