Barry Sonnenfeld was born and raised in New York City. He graduated from New York University of Film School in 1978. He started work as director of photography on the Oscar-nominated In Our Water (1982). Then Joel Coen and Ethan Coen hired him for Sang pour sang (1984). This film began his collaboration with the Coen Bros., who used him for their next two pictures, Arizona Junior (1987) and Miller's Crossing (1990). He also worked with Danny DeVito on his Balance maman hors du train (1987) and Rob Reiner on Quand Harry rencontre Sally... (1989) and Misery (1990). Sonnenfeld got his first work as a director from Orion Pictures on La famille Addams (1991), a box-office success released in November 1991 followed by its sequel, Les valeurs de la famille Addams (1993). He received critical acclaim for his fourth directorial effort, Get Shorty (Stars et truands) (1995). Produced by Jersey Films and based on a novel by Elmore Leonard, the film won a Golden Globe for best male performance. In 1996 Steven Spielberg asked him to direct Men in Black (1997). Starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith, the movie was a critical and financial smash. Producer Jon Peters then asked Sonnenfeld to direct Wild Wild West (1999), an adaptation of an old TV series. He also directed the comedy Big Trouble (2002), after which he made his most successful film sequel, Men in Black II (2002).
