Guggenheim is the son of Academy-award winning filmmaker Charles Guggenheim and Marion Guggenheim. He graduated from Brown University in 1986.
He was an executive producer on the movie Training Day and has directed a feature film called Gossip, both for Warner Bros. His television directing credits include recently completed episodes of The Shield, Alias, and 24 as well as such critically acclaimed programs as NYPD Blue, ER, and Party of Five and the documentaries The First Year and Teach. He also served as a producer and director of the 2004 HBO dramatic series Deadwood.
He directed and produced the 2006 feature length documentary film An Inconvenient Truth, based upon a slide show about global warming given by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. The film received the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in February 2007.
His most recent film is Gracie, which takes place in 1978. It is about a teenage girl who overcomes the loss of her brother and fights the odds to achieve her dream of playing competitive soccer. The film is loosely based on the experiences of his wife, Elisabeth Shue. His current project is It Might Get Loud an examination of the western world's embrace of the electric guitar. It also profiles 3 iconic guitarists spanning three generations; Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White
