Claim: The Wachowskis are sisters.

Lana Wachowski -LRB- formerly Laurence `` Larry '' Wachowski , born June 21 , 1965 -RRB- and Lilly Wachowski -LRB- formerly Andrew Paul `` Andy '' Wachowski , born December 29 , 1967 -RRB- are American film directors , screenwriters , and producers . They are siblings , and are both trans women . Collectively known as The Wachowskis and formerly as The Wachowski Brothers , the pair made their directing debut in 1996 with Bound , and reached fame with their second film The Matrix -LRB- 1999 -RRB- , a major box office success for which they won the Saturn Award for Best Director . They wrote and directed its two sequels : The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions -LRB- both in 2003 -RRB- , and were deeply involved in the writing and production of other works in the franchise .   Following the commercial success of The Matrix series , they wrote and produced the 2006 film V for Vendetta -LRB- an adaptation of the comic of the same name by Alan Moore -RRB- , and in 2008 released the film Speed Racer , which was a live-action adaptation of the Japanese anime series of the same name . Their next film , Cloud Atlas , based on the novel of the same name by David Mitchell and co-written and co-directed by Tom Tykwer , was released in 2012 . Their film Jupiter Ascending and the Netflix series Sense8 both debuted in 2015 .   The siblings have worked as a writing and directing unit throughout their professional film careers from Bound through the first season of Sense8 . Following her gender transition , Lilly Wachowski took a break from active writing and directing ; Lana worked on the second season of Sense8 without her .