Steven L. Giannotta was born Detroit, Michigan April 4, 1947. After attending a parochial all-boys high school, he attended the University of Detroit for three years and was accepted to the University of Michigan Medical School without a Bachelors degree. He received his M.D. at the University of Michigan in 1972.

Dr. Giannotta served an internship and residency at University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor under Richard Schneider and Glenn Kindt.

He was appointed Assistant Professor at UCLA and Assistant Chief of Neurosurgery at the Wadsworth VA Medical Center in 1978. He served for two years with Eugene Stern and Robert Rand before joining Marty Weiss, Mike Apuzzo and Gordon McComb at the University of Southern California. He was appointed Professor of Neurological Surgery at USC in 1989. In 2004 he became the Chairman of the Neurosurgery Department at USC.

He has a special interest in cerebrovascular problems, cranial base tumors and acoustic tumors. Extensive laboratory research relates to new approaches to cerebral vasospasm and focal atherosclerosis.

He has served many leadership roles including: Executive Committee (1983-94), Secretary (1986-89) and Vice-President (1992-93) of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons; President of the Los Angeles Society for Neurosciences (1991); President (1993-94) and Secretary (1986-93) of the Southern California Neurosurgical Society; Chairman of the Joint Section on Cerebrovascular Surgery of the AANS/CNS (1996-98); President of the Western Neurosurgical Society; Chair (2000-01), Secretary(1999-2000) and Director (1996-01) of the American Board of Neurological Surgery; Chair (2006-08) of the Neurosurgery RRC (2002-08); President of the American Academy of Neurological Surgeons (2009-10); Vice President of the Society of Neurological Surgeons (2010-11); Secretary of the CAST Committee of the SNS (2008-2018).

He and his wife Sharon have three children: Brent, Nicole, and Robin. He has many hobbies including golf, skiing and collecting vintage Corvettes.