Christopher Markus (born January 2, 1970) and Stephen McFeely (born February 24, 1970) are American screenwriters and

producers Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

. McFeely and Markus were the second and the third most successful screenwriters of all time in terms of U.S. box office receipts with a shared total gross of over $3.1 billion. However, in overall, they are the highest grossing screenwriters altogether in terms of worldwide box office with the total gross of $9.3 billion. They gained worldwide recognition for their works that include ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' film franchise and the

Marvel Cinematic Universe The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appear in American comic books published by ...

(MCU), having written all three '' Captain America'' films ('' The First Avenger'', '' The Winter Soldier'' and ''

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

''), in addition to '' Thor: The Dark World'', '' Avengers: Infinity War'' and '' Avengers: Endgame'', which is currently the second highest-grossing film of all time unadjusted for inflation. They also created ABC's '' Agent Carter'' TV series, set in the MCU.

Life and career

Christopher Markus

Markus was born on January 2, 1970, in Buffalo, New York. He is the son of Budapest, Hungary-born physician Dr. Gabor Markus and registered nurse Rosemary Golebiewski Markus. He has two siblings, sisters Jennifer and Elizabeth. Markus earned a B.A. in creative writing from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

in 1991. His father is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

while his mother is

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. , Markus is married to Claire Saunders.

Stephen McFeely

McFeely was born on February 24, 1970, in Walnut Creek, California, and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He earned a B.A. in English from the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

in 1991.

Collaborators

Markus and McFeely met on the graduate program for creative writing at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...

in 1994 and they were inspired to become novelists. "We couldn't see how we could make

ook Ook, OoK or OOK may refer to: * Ook Chung (born 1963), Korean-Canadian writer from Quebec * On-off keying, in radio technology * Toksook Bay Airport (IATA code OOK), in Alaska * Ook!, an esoteric programming language based on Brainfuck * Ook, th ...

writing our full-time day job," McFeely said in 2011, and they turned to screenwriting instead. After earning their master's degrees in 1996, they moved to Los Angeles to pursue that career, working at such jobs as receptionist at movie production companies. After acquiring an agent, they became professional screenwriters in 1998 with an eventually unproduced script about a real-life Los Angeles murder. Interest generated from the purchased script led HBO Films to commission them to write a biographical drama about actor

Peter Sellers Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...

. For ''

The Life and Death of Peter Sellers ''The Life and Death of Peter Sellers'' is a 2004 television film about the life of English comedian Peter Sellers, based on Roger Lewis's book of the same name. 1108 pagesPublished in the U.S. via Applause BooksA very comprehensive biography, w ...

'' in 2004, they won a

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special This is a list of the winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Winners and nominations 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Total awards by network * HBO/H ...

. Subsequent work on ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' film franchise set them up for the

. They wrote 2022's ''

The Gray Man Grey man, The Gray Man or The Grey Man may refer to: Concepts * Grey man theory, a concept in everyday carry that one should blend in with the environment so as not to raise suspicion People * The primary nickname of American serial killer A ...

'' starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans and future projects include ''The Electric State'' starring

Millie Bobby Brown Millie Bobby Brown (born 19 February 2004) is a British actress and producer. She gained recognition for playing Eleven in the Netflix science fiction series ''Stranger Things'' (2016–present), for which she received nominations for two Prim ...

Filmography

Film credits

Television credits

*'' Agent Carter'' (creators, writers, producers) (2015–2016)

References

External links

* *
Christopher Markus
biography at

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of At ...

Stephen McFeely
biography at Turner Classic Movies {{DEFAULTSORT:Markus, Christopher and McFeely, Stephen McFeely, Stephen Markus, Christopher Living people American male screenwriters Filmmaking duos McFeely, Stephen Primetime Emmy Award winners Rutgers University alumni McFeely, Stephen Screenwriters from New York (state) Screenwriting duos M McFeely, Stephen Writers from Buffalo, New York Writers Guild of America Award winners