[2][3] His father, John Thomas Sanders (deceased), was an employee of IBM and also owned and operated a popular D.C. area barbecue pit, Scott's BBQ, which he named after his son.

[citation needed] He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating in 1991 with a degree in radio, TV, and Motion Pictures.

[citation needed] He went to middle school with Saturday Night Live cast member Ana Gasteyer; they had a scene together in a 7th-grade production of the play Auntie Mame.

[7] Sanders' film directorial debut came in 1998 with Thick as Thieves, starring Alec Baldwin, Michael Jai White, Rebecca De Mornay, and Janeane Garofalo.

[7][6] One critic described Black Dynamite as, "Scott Saunders' wickedly silly '70s-style blaxploitation spoof…that's intentionally and often delightfully shlocky; not to mention murky-looking as if its been sitting on shelf for a few decades.

[16][17] In 2012, Sanders directed the comedy-action film Aztec Warrior starring Luis Guzman as a washed-up Lucha Libre wrestler who comes out of retirement.