NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — Rutgers will hold its graduation ceremony May 17, and screenwriter Christopher Markus is their commencement speaker this year.
Governor Mikie Sherrill will also receive an honorary doctor of law degree in recognition of her distinguished career in military service, law and public leadership.
Markus is best known for the screenwriting he did for six Marvel films, including the box office blockbusters Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), both of which he co-wrote with screenwriting partner Stephen McFeely.
Markus is the second-highest grossing screenwriter of all time, and one of the most sought-after writers in Hollywood. He graduated from Rutgers College in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in English.
Born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., his mother was a registered nurse and his father was an immigrant to the U.S. from Hungary, after surviving Nazi persecution.
In prior interviews, Markus said he arrived at Rutgers in the late ’80s "with vague aspirations of becoming a writer."
He “took every creative writing course that Rutgers had” and recalls “a lot of encouraging people who did not tell me to stop.”
After graduating, he went to the University of California at Davis for graduate work, which is where he met McFeely and earned a master’s degree in creative writing in 1996.
Eight years after moving to Los Angeles, the duo gained wide praise for their screenplay for The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), a made-for-TV movie for which they received a Primetime Emmy Award in 2005. They went on to attract the attention of producers with the dark comedy You Kill Me (2007).
During the pair’s three-decade collaboration, they have co-written 14 produced films. In addition to their success with the Marvel Comic Universe films and The Chronicles of Narnia series, they also wrote screenplays for The Electric State (2025), and the true crime Pain & Gain (2013).
Markus currently lives in L.A. with his wife, Claire Saunders Markus, a writer and casting director, and their daughter.
Graduation will be held SHI Stadium in Piscataway
An estimated 18,160 Rutgers undergraduates will receive degrees this year, among them Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell's daughter, a Rutgers student and member of the class of 2026.
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