Sofia Coppola's Real Name: Sofia Carmina Coppola

Quick answer: Sofia Coppola's documented full name is Sofia Carmina Coppola. Encyclopaedia Britannica records that form and also notes the early stage name Domino Coppola. The sources differ on her exact birth date: Britannica gives May 14, 1971, in New York, New York, while Encyclopedia.com gives May 12, 1971, in New York, N.Y. (Encyclopaedia Britannica; Encyclopedia.com).

Real name and early life

Britannica lists Sofia Carmina Coppola and says she is the daughter of film director Francis Ford Coppola and artist and documentary filmmaker Eleanor Coppola. Encyclopedia.com names the same parents, giving Eleanor's maiden name as Neil. Britannica says she was born in New York City while her father was filming The Godfather and grew up in northern California. She played small parts in her father's films, often as Domino Coppola, and had her first significant role as Mary Corleone in The Godfather Part III (1990); the negative reaction to that performance pushed her away from acting. In the early 1990s she studied painting at California Institute of the Arts, Encyclopedia.com also records, and in 1994 she co-launched the fashion line Milk Fed.

Career highlights

Her first feature, The Virgin Suicides (1999), was a screenplay she wrote from Jeffrey Eugenides's novel; Encyclopedia.com notes that it premiered at Cannes. Lost in Translation (2003), which she wrote, directed, and produced, won her the Academy Award for best original screenplay and made her the first American woman nominated for best director; the film starred Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. Later features include Marie Antoinette (2006), The Bling Ring (2013), and The Beguiled (2017), for which she became the second woman to win the Cannes best director award, Britannica says. She later directed On the Rocks, again with Murray, and Priscilla (2023), based on Priscilla Presley's memoir. In 2026 she directed the documentary Marc by Sofia, about fashion designer Marc Jacobs. She was married to director Spike Jonze from 1999 until their divorce in 2003, and later married musician Thomas Mars.

Name notes for searchers

Sofia Carmina Coppola is the documented full name; she was known early on as Domino Coppola and is known professionally as Sofia Coppola. Searchers looking for the director of Lost in Translation or The Virgin Suicides, or for Mary Corleone in The Godfather Part III, are usually aiming at the same person.