Steven Spielberg was born in December 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in Arizona. A lifelong cinema buff, he began directing short movies while still a child, later studying film at California State University and winning notice for his 1968 short feature, Amblin.

His first feature was The Sugarland Express (1974), followed by the blockbuster Jaws (1975) which cemented his reputation as a rising star. He is best known for films such as ET, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park and Schindler's List, which won 7 Academy Awards, among many others.

In the 1990s he founded Dreamworks Production Company together with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. In 1987 a generous donation was received from Steven Spielberg and the Archive was named in his honor in 1988.