Growing Up
Anthony Russo (2-3-1970) and Joseph (Joe) Russo (7-18-1970) were born and raised in Cleveland Ohio. They grew up in a large Italian family and both went to Case Western Reserve University for graduate school. There, Anthony studied law, while Joe studied acting.
Starting Out
Created their first feature film, Pieces, which priered at the Slamdance Film Festival.
They were approached by Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney to help produce their next film
Welcome to Collinwood (2002).
Hired by Kevin Reilly and the FX network to create pilot for the tv show Lucky (2003).
Hired by Ron Howard and Fox to direct the pilot for Arrested Development (2003).
This won them a Primetime Emmy award.
After this, they went back to film and directed the comedy You, Me, and Dupree, which grossed over 130 million dollars worldwide.
However, it had negative reviews.
They then went on to become the executive producers of the ABC sitcom Carpoolers (2007 - 2008), the first couple seasons of the sitcom Community
(2009 - 2014), and the ABC sitcom Happy Endings (2011 - 2013).
Big Break
In 2014, they were able to direct the critically acclaimed movie Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
They had to pitch their vision to the Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige
against a competition of other directors such as George Nolfi (who directed The Bourne Ultimatum) and F. Gary Gray (The Fate of the Furious).
They had a series of four meetings with reference books, storyboards, and scripts with details such as the theme of the movie to fighting style to what they liked about each character.
They were awarded the right to direct it. It earned 715 million in the box office against a 180 million dollar budget.
After this, they returned to direct Captain America: Civil War (2016) which earned over 1 billion on a 250 million dollar budget.
They also directed Avengers: Infinity War (2018) as well as Avengers: Endgame (2019) which both broke box office records.
Post Marvel
Endgame was the last Marvel movie that they directed, but they still returned to direct the post credit scene of Ant-Man and the mid-credits scene of Captain Marvel.
Currently, they are in the process of producing a Netflix animated series based on Magic: The Gathering, a spy series for Amazon Prime, a live action of Disney’s Hercules, as well as a Netflix adaptation of The Gray Man.
