Christopher Markus (born October 16, 1969) and Stephen McFeely (born February 24, 1970) are American

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

s and

producers Producer(s), The Producer(s), or co-producer(s) may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *Producer, a stakeholder of economic production * Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes t ...

. McFeely and Markus are the first and second most successful screenwriters of all time in terms of U.S. box office receipts, with a shared total gross of $3.175 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 List of Marvel Cinematic Universe films, a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appe ...

(MCU), having written the first three ''

Captain America Captain America is a superhero created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby who appears in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in '' Captain America Comics'' #1, published on December 20, 1940, by Timely C ...

'' films ('' The First Avenger'', '' The Winter Soldier'' and ''

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, 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.J ...

''), 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

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's '' Agent Carter'' TV series, set in the MCU.

Life and career

Christopher Markus

Markus was born on October 16, 1969, in Buffalo, New York. He is the son of

Budapest, Hungary Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

-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 ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

in 1991. His father is

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

while his mother is

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. , 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; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

in 1991.

Collaboration

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 university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

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, the ...

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''. Sellers featured on a number of hit comi ...

. For ''

The Life and Death of Peter Sellers ''The Life and Death of Peter Sellers'' is a 2004 biographical 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 ...

'' 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 � ...

. 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: People * The primary nickname of American serial killer Albert Fish * A nickname of British Prime Minister John Major, known as the "grey man" of British politics * "Grey man/woman", a term ...

'' starring

Ryan Gosling Ryan Thomas Gosling ( ; born November 12, 1980) is a Canadian actor. His work includes both independent films and major studio features, and his accolades include a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards, a ...

and Chris Evans and '' The Electric State'' starring

Millie Bobby Brown Millie Bonnie Brown Bongiovi ( Brown; born 19 February 2004), known professionally as Millie Bobby Brown, is a British actress and producer. She gained recognition for playing Eleven (Stranger Things), Eleven in the Netflix science fiction ser ...

and

Chris Pratt Christopher Michael Pratt (born June 21, 1979) is an American actor. His films as a leading actor have grossed over $14.1billion worldwide, making him the fifth-highest-grossing film star of all time. Pratt was named by ''Time'' as one of t ...

. McFeely is also set to write the upcoming MCU films '' Avengers: Doomsday'' (2026) and '' Avengers: Secret Wars'' (2027), while Markus will continue to run

AGBO AGBO (also known as Gozie AGBO) is an American independent entertainment company based in Downtown Los Angeles, founded and led by Anthony and Joe Russo (known collectively as the Russo brothers) and Mike Larocca in 2017. Recent television ...

, theirs and the Russo brothers' production company, which is co-producing those films with

Marvel Studios Marvel Studios, LLC, formerly known as Marvel Films, is an American film and television production company. Marvel Studios is the creator of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), a media franchise and shared universe of films and television ser ...

Filmography

Film

Acting roles

Television

References

External links

* *
Christopher Markus
biography at

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcas ...

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