What Is Steve McQueen's Net Worth?
Sir Steve McQueen is a British director, screenwriter, and producer who has a net worth of $20 million. Steve McQueen (not to be confused with the late American actor of the same name) won an Academy Award for the 2013 film "12 Years a Slave," which he directed and produced. Steve wrote and directed the films "Hunger" (2008), "Shame" (2011) and "Widows" (2018) and the anthology series "Small Axe" (2020), and he also produced "Widows" and "Small Axe." McQueen directed and produced the 2023 documentary "Occupied City" and the 2021 BBC docuseries "Uprising" as well, and he has directed short films such as "Exodus" (1997), "Gravesend" (2007), and "Grenfell" (2023). Steve was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2002 and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2011. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to film during the 2020 New Year Honours. In 2014, "Time" magazine included Steve on its list of "The 100 Most Influential People in the World."
Early Life
Steve McQueen was born Steve Rodney McQueen on October 9, 1969, in London, England. His Bajan father and Grenadian mother both migrated to England. Steve attended Drayton Manor High School, and in a 2014 interview with "The Guardian," McQueen stated that he had been placed in a class for students that the school believed were best suited for "manual labour, more plumbers and builders, stuff like that." He also revealed in the interview, "I've never said this before, ever. But I was dyslexic. And I've hidden it, because I was so ashamed. I thought it meant I was stupid. Also, I had a lazy eye. So I had a patch. When you're in front of the chalk board, you still can't f***ing see. So it was a terrible start. And people make judgments very quick. So you're put to one side very quickly." Steve said that when he returned to the school 15 years later to present achievement awards, the new head told him that there had been institutional racism at the school at the time he attended. McQueen studied art at West London College and Ealing, Hammersmith, art and design at the Chelsea College of Arts, and fine art at the University of London's Goldsmiths College. He became interested in film during his time at Goldsmiths College, and after he left the school, he briefly attended the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.
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Career
In 1995, Steve met art curator Okwui Enwezor at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, and Enwezor became his mentor. In the early years of his career, McQueen directed the short films "Bear" (1993), "Five Easy Pieces" (1995), "Just Above My Head" (1996), "Stage" (1996), "Exodus"(1997), and "Deadpan" (1997), and he appeared in some of his early work. In 1999, he won the Turner Prize, which is given to a British artist that created an "outstanding exhibition or other presentation." In 2006, Steve traveled to Iraq to serve as an official war artist, and he subsequently created a piece titled "Queen and Country" in which he presented portraits of British soldiers who died in that war as sheets of stamps. His first feature film was 2008's "Hunger," a drama about the 1981 Irish hunger strike. McQueen co-wrote the film with Enda Walsh, and it starred Michael Fassbender. He reunited with Fassbender for 2011's "Shame," which he co-wrote with Abi Morgan. Fassbender won numerous awards for his performance in "Shame," and film critic Roger Ebert named it the second-best film of the year.
Steve's 2013 film "12 Years a Slave" grossed $187.7 million at the box office and won an Academy Award for Best Picture. McQueen was nominated for Best Director, Lupita Nyong'o won for Best Supporting Actress, and Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender earned nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively. In 2023, "12 Years a Slave" was preserved in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant." Next, Steve directed, co-wrote (with "Gone Girl" author Gillian Flynn), and produced 2018's "Widows," which starred Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, Cynthia Erivo, Colin Farrell, Brian Tyree Henry, Daniel Kaluuya, Robert Duvall, and Liam Neeson. The thriller was included on several lists of the year's top 10 films and was ranked #1 by Richard Roeper of the "Chicago Sun-Times" and David Sims of "The Atlantic." In 2020 and 2021, McQueen focused on television, directing and producing the BBC One anthology series "Small Axe" and the BBC docuseries "Uprising." His 2023 documentary "Occupied City" earned him a L'Œil d'or nomination at the Cannes Film Festival. In October 2021, it was announced that Steve would be writing, directing, and producing the historical drama "Blitz."
Personal Life
Steve and his wife, screenwriter/director/producer Bianca Stigter, have two children, Alex and Dexter. The family has owned homes in London and Amsterdam. Stigter wrote the 2023 documentary "Occupied City," which McQueen directed. Steve was a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, but he told "The Guardian" in 2014, "I gave up football. It affected my day too much. It's just stupid." McQueen was featured on the Powerlist "10 most influential black people in Britain" list in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017.
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Awards and Nominations
In 2014, McQueen earned two Academy Award nominations for "12 Years a Slave," winning Best Motion Picture of the Year. His other nomination was for Best Achievement in Directing. The film also earned Steve awards from the BAFTA Awards, Golden Globes, Acapulco Black Film Festival, Satellite Awards, Hollywood Film Awards, NAACP Image Awards, Film Independent Spirit Awards, New York Film Critics Circle Awards, Palm Springs International Film Festival, PGA Awards, Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards, Stockholm Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Black Reel Awards, Sant Jordi Awards, Film by the Sea International Film Festival, Cinema for Peace Awards, Alliance of Women Film Journalists, African-American Film Critics Association Awards, CinEuphoria Awards, Black Film Critics Circle Awards, Gold Derby Awards, and Online Film & Television Association Awards.
For "Hunger," McQueen won the BAFTA Awards' Carl Foreman Award for the Most Promising Newcomer, the British Independent Film Awards' Douglas Hickox Award, and the Cannes Film Festival's Golden Camera and FIPRESCI Prize (Un Certain Regard) as well as awards from the Chicago International Film Festival, Cinemanila International Film Festival, Dinard British Film Festival, European Film Awards, "Evening Standard" British Film Awards, Ghent International Film Festival, Jerusalem Film Festival, Ljubljana International Film Festival, London Critics Circle Film Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, New York Film Critics Circle Awards, Stockholm Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, Toronto Film Critics Association Awards, Toronto International Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Writers' Guild of Great Britain, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Alliance of Women Film Journalists, and CinEuphoria Awards. "Shame" earned Steve a Young Cinema Award for Best Film in Competition, a 'CinemAvvenire' Award for Best Film, and a FIPRESCI Prize at the 2011 Venice Film Festival. He also won Black Reel Awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay, Original or Adapted, an African-American Film Critics Association Award for Best Director, a Seville European Film Festival award for Best Director, and CinEuphoria Awards for Best Director – International Competition and Top Ten of the Year – Audience Award. He also received several nominations for his work on "Small Axe," winning a Black Reel Award for Television for Outstanding Directing, TV Movie/Limited Series in 2021.
