In 2018, Friedman was featured in "TIME100", Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018 and was named Broadway Briefing's Show Person of the Year.

Friedman is the youngest of three daughters of Clair Llewelyn (née Sims), a concert pianist, and violinist Leonard Freedman (who later changed his name to Friedman), who was leader of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham and co-founder of many national institutions including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Scottish Baroque Ensemble.

[13] In July 2022, it was announced that Friedman would be developing a play with Stephen Daldry set in the same world as the TV series Stranger Things.

[14] In 2015, Sonia Friedman Productions co-produced two television dramas, the BAFTA Nominated The Dresser which aired on BBC Two and directly followed after SFP's partnership with Playground Entertainment on the six-part mini-series adaptation of Dame Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, which also aired on BBC Two in January 2015 and won two BAFTA Television Awards in 2016.

This made it the first UK stage production closed by the Coronavirus pandemic to have been filmed and produced for the screen.