Christopher Markus (born October 16, 1969) and Stephen McFeely (born February 24, 1970) are American screenwriters and producers. They 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 (MCU), having written the first three Captain America films (The First Avenger, The Winter Soldier and Civil War), in addition to Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame, which is currently the highest-grossing film of all time unadjusted for inflation. They also created ABC's Agent Carter TV series, set in the MCU.
Early life, family and education Christopher Markus Markus was born on October 16, 1969, 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 in 1991. His father is Jewish while his mother is Catholic. , Markus was 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 in 1991.
Career Collaboration Markus and McFeely met on the graduate program for creative writing at the University of California, Davis in 1994. They were inspired to become novelists. "We couldn't see how we could make [book] 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. For The Life and Death of Peter Sellers in 2004, they won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special. Subsequent work on The Chronicles of Narnia film franchise set them up for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
They wrote 2022's The Gray Man starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans and The Electric State starring Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt. McFeely is also set to co-write the upcoming MCU films Avengers: Doomsday (2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (2027) with Michael Waldron, Chris McKenna, and Erik Sommers, while Markus would continue to run AGBO, the Russo brothers' production company.
Filmography Film Year Title Director Notes 2004 The Life and Death of Peter Sellers Stephen Hopkins 2005 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Andrew Adamson 2007 You Kill Me John Dahl 2008 The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Andrew Adamson 2010 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Michael Apted 2011 Captain America: The First Avenger Joe Johnston 1st collaboration with Marvel Studios2013 Pain & Gain Michael Bay Thor: The Dark World Alan Taylor 2014 Captain America: The Winter Soldier Anthony and Joe Russo 2016 Captain America: Civil War 2018 Avengers: Infinity War 2019 Avengers: Endgame Also co-producers 2022 The Gray Man Also executive producers 2025 The Electric State 2026 Avengers: Doomsday Stephen McFeely only
Acting roles Year Title Role Notes 2014 Captain America: The Winter Soldier SHIELD Interrogators 2018 Avengers: Infinity War Secretary Ross' Aide Stephen McFeely only
Television Year Title Writers Producers Creators Notes 1999–2000 Good vs Evil Episode "M Is for Morlock" 2015–2016 Agent Carter
References
External links
Christopher Markus biography at Turner Classic Movies Stephen McFeely biography at Turner Classic Movies