Who

Indie queen Sofia Coppola is a favorite of moviegoing hipsters, who appreciate her quiet, cerebral (did someone say pretentious?) flicks like Lost in Translation.

Backstory

Coppola is Hollywood royalty—her father, of course, is Francis Ford Coppola—so it's no surprise that she started her acting career when she was just an infant. She first appeared on screen in The Godfather when she was a year old, in an uncredited role as a baby boy in the christening scene. As a kid, she bounced between her family's vineyard in Napa Valley and exotic spots around the world when her dad was on location, and had several other parts in his films like Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club, and Peggy Sue Got Married. But acting, it's fair to say, wasn't her thing. (She scored a not-so-coveted Razzie for "Worst New Star" for her memorably awful role in The Godfather Part III.) After high school in California (during which time she spent summer vacations interning for Karl Lagerfeld in Paris), she studied photography at Cal Arts before dropping out and pursued a string of different ventures. She appeared in a short-lived Comedy Central show called Hi-Octane (along with best friend Zoe Cassavetes) and in 1995 founded a clothing line called Milk Fed, which still lives on, albeit only in Japan.

Coppola finally decided to step behind the camera in the mid-'90s, helming the film adaptation of the Jeffrey Eugenides novel The Virgin Suicides. The movie earned her critical praise and an Oscar nod, helping to silence those who thought she was coasting on her last name. Three years later, thanks to a star-making performance by Scarlett Johansson, Lost in Translation won Coppola a statue and panegyrics from critics. The Times said the film was packed with the "joy of filmmaking."

Of note

The cool kids have been singing Coppola's praises for years, and her close association with cutting-edge types in fashion, film, and music—Spike Jonze, Thurston Moore, Quentin Tarantino—has helped enhance her status as an indie icon. She earned hipster sainthood when Marc Jacobs picked her to front several of his ads in 2003. (Jacobs often describes her as one of his muses.) But her charmed life hit a bump in the road in 2006 with the Kirsten Dunst-fronted drama Marie Antoinette, which set the story of the doomed queen to an indie rock soundtrack. Most critics thought the pic was more style than substance, and it didn't meet expectations at the box office. Coppola doesn't have any movies in the can at the moment, but something tells us she won't have trouble paying the rent.

Family ties

Sofia's older brother Roman is a director as well—he primarily films music videos and commercials. Her eldest brother, Gian-Carlo, was killed in a boating accident when he was 22 and she was 15. The well-connected Coppola's aunt is actress Talia Shire (of "Yo Adrian!" fame), which makes actor Jason Schwartzman and his brother Robert Carmine (lead singer of the pop band Rooney) her cousins. Another of her cousins? Nicolas Cage.

Personal

After dating the likes of Keanu Reeves, Coppola wed fellow director Spike Jonze in 1999 (the two met on the set of a Sonic Youth shoot); they divorced in 2003. Coppola was briefly involved with Quentin Tarantino before having her first child in 2006 with Thomas Mars, front man of French rock band Phoenix. She splits her time between her East Village apartment, a house in Los Angeles, and a pad in Paris.

No joke

Her father named a line of wines from his vineyard, Niebaum-Coppola, after her, including a brand of canned sparkling wine. The label boasts that the beverage is "revolutionary, petulant, reactionary, ebullient, fragrant, cold, cool." Indeed.