Leelee Sobieski first found fame as a teenage actress. After being cast in Stanley Kubrick's “Eyes Wide Shut” at the age of 13, her star quickly rose and she went on to be cast in more than 30 film and television roles throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. She appeared in many popular films, including “Deep Impact,” “Never Been Kissed,” “Here on Earth,” and “The Glass House.”
Sobieski had several critically acclaimed television roles, receiving Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for her portrayal of the heroic patron saint of France in the television film “Joan of Arc” and a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in the miniseries “Uprising.”
Sobieski’s acting career seemed natural, having been born to Elizabeth Sobieski, a film producer and screenwriter who also worked as Sobieski's manager. Her father, Jean Sobieski, is also a former actor. He is a painter, as well, and instilled in his daughter a strong sense of the visual arts in her formative years.
Sobieski may have found success as an actress, but her true passion has always been art, and she viewed her acting as a means to an end.
“I’ve been doing this for my whole life, pretty much,” she said to AnOther magazine in 2018. “I always acted to be able to afford paints. It might sound really weird, but that’s what happened – the cards were just dealt to me that way. But acting was never my passion, unless I was working with someone really interesting and smart.”
Sobieski, who uses her married name of Leelee Kimmel for her art career, officially retired from acting in 2012 to focus on her family and her artistic endeavors. She uses paint, builds abstract sculptures, and incorporates virtual reality (VR) into her art. She depicts electricity and energy with a sci-fi tinge utilizing bright colors and abstracted, textured shapes floating on either a large black or white background.
In 2018, after almost a decade of work, Sobieski debuted her solo exhibit “Channels” at the Journal Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The show was a success and garnered critical praise. A follow-up exhibit entitled “Wormholes” appeared in London at the Simon Lee gallery.