Steven Allan Spielberg KBE (Order of the British Empire) (born December 18, 1946) is an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. In a career of over four decades, Spielbergs films have touched on many themes and genres. Spielbergs early sci-fi and adventure films, sometimes centering on children, were seen as an archetype of modern Hollywood blockbuster (Blockbuster (entertainment)) filmmaking. In later years his films began addressing such issues as The Holocaust, slavery, war and terrorism.

Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for 1993s Schindlers List and 1998s Saving Private Ryan. Three of Spielbergs films, Jaws (Jaws (film)) (1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park (film)) (1993), broke box office (List of highest-grossing films) records, each becoming the highest-grossing film made at the time. To date, the unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $8.5 billion worldwide. Forbes magazine places Spielbergs personal net worth at $3.0 billion. In 2006, Premiere (Premiere (magazine)) listed him as the most powerful and influential figure in the motion picture industry (film industry). Time (Time (magazine)) listed him as one of the 100 Most Important People of the Century (Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century). At the end of the twentieth century, Life (Life (magazine)) named him the most influential person of his generation.