Wesley Wales Anderson was born in Houston, Texas. His mother, Texas Ann (Burroughs), is an archaeologist turned real estate agent, and his father, Melver Leonard Anderson, worked in advertising and PR. He has two brothers,Eric and Mel. Anderson's parents divorced when he was a young child, anevent that he described as the most crucial event of his brothers and hisgrowing up. During childhood, Anderson also began writing plays andmaking super-8 movies. He was educated at Westchester High School andthen St. John's, a private prep school in Houston, Texas, which waslater to prove an inspiration for the filmTensai Max no Sekai (1998).

Anderson attended the University of Texas in Austin, where he majoredin philosophy. It was there that he metOwen Wilson. They became friends andbegan making short films, some of which aired on a local cable-accessstation. One of their shorts wasBottle Rocket (1993), which starredOwen and his brotherLuke Wilson.The short was screened at the Sundance Film Festival, where it wassuccessfully received, so much so that they received funding to make afeature-length version.Bottle Rocket (1996) was not acommercial hit, but it gained a cult audience and high-profile fans,which includedMartin Scorsese.

Success followed with films such asTensai Max no Sekai (1998),Life Aquatic (2004),The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)and an animated feature,Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009). Thelatter two films earned Anderson Oscar nominations.