Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely

Christopher Markus (born October 16, 1969) and Stephen McFeely (born February 24, 1970) are American screenwriters and producers. McFeely and Markus are 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 $9.3 billion.^[1]

Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely
Markus and McFeely in 2019
Born	Markus: (1969-10-16) October 16, 1969 (age 55) Buffalo, New York, U.S. McFeely: (1970-02-24) February 24, 1970 (age 55) Walnut Creek, California, U.S.
Alma mater	Markus: Rutgers University McFeely: University of Notre Dame Both: University of California, Davis
Occupations	Screenwriters producers
Years active	2004–present
Spouse	Markus: Claire Saunders ​ (m. 2011)​

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,^[2] 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 October 16, 1969,^[3] in Buffalo, New York.^[4] 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.^[5] Markus earned a B.A. in creative writing from Rutgers University in 1991.^[4] His father is Jewish while his mother is Catholic.^[6] As of April 2012^[update], Markus is married to Claire Saunders.^[5]

Stephen McFeely

McFeely was born on February 24, 1970,^[7] in Walnut Creek, California,^[3] and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area.^[8] He earned a B.A. in English from the University of Notre Dame in 1991.^[8]

Collaboration

Markus and McFeely met on the graduate program for creative writing at the University of California, Davis in 1994 and 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.^[9] Interest generated from the purchased script led HBO Films to commission them to write a biographical drama about actor Peter Sellers.^[3] 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.^[10] Subsequent work on The Chronicles of Narnia film franchise set them up for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.^[11]

They wrote 2022's The Gray Man starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans and The Electric State starring Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt.^[12] 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, theirs and the Russo brothers' production company, which is co-producing those films with Marvel Studios.^[13][14]

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
2013	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	Yes	No	No	Episode "M Is for Morlock"
2015–2016	Agent Carter	Yes	Yes	Yes