Steven Rodney McQueen was born on 9 October 1969 in West London to parents from the West Indies who had moved to the city in the early 1960s, and studied art at Goldsmiths, University of London, before pursuing filmmaking at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
McQueen first established himself as a visual artist working primarily in short film, winning the Turner Prize in 1999 and later representing Great Britain at the Venice Biennale, before transitioning to feature filmmaking with Hunger in 2008 and Shame in 2011, both starring Michael Fassbender.
His wife, filmmaker Bianca Stigter, introduced McQueen to Solomon Northup's 1853 memoir Twelve Years a Slave, the story of a free Black man kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Antebellum South, which McQueen adapted into his third feature film.
12 Years a Slave, released in 2013 and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, won the Academy Award for Best Picture, making McQueen the first Black director and first Black producer to win the award, alongside Oscar wins for Lupita Nyong'o and screenwriter John Ridley.
McQueen went on to direct the acclaimed anthology series Small Axe, exploring London's West Indian community, and continued working across both film and visual art; he was knighted in 2020 for services to film, and 12 Years a Slave is widely credited with helping reignite mainstream conversation about slavery and opening doors for Black filmmakers in Hollywood.
- First Black director and producer to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, 2014
- Won the Turner Prize as a visual artist, 1999
- Directed the acclaimed Small Axe anthology series
- Represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale
- Knighted for services to film, 2020
- A background in fine art can reshape an entire film's visual language. McQueen's training as a visual artist gave his feature films a distinctive, unflinching visual style rarely seen in mainstream cinema.
- A single landmark film can shift an entire industry. McQueen has stated that many subsequent films got made because of the door 12 Years a Slave opened for Black filmmakers.