Kevin Feige ( ; born June 2, 1973) is an American film and television producer who has been the president of

Marvel Studios Marvel Studios, LLC (originally known as Marvel Films from 1993 to 1996) is an American film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of the Walt Disney Company. Marvel Studios produces the Ma ...

and the primary producer of the

Marvel Cinematic Universe The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appear in American comic books published ...

franchise since 2007. The films he has produced have a combined worldwide box office gross of over , making him the highest grossing producer of all time, with '' Avengers: Endgame'' becoming the highest-grossing film at the time of its release. Feige is a member of the Producers Guild of America. In 2018, he was nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Picture The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film and is the only categ ...

for producing ''

Black Panther A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical rosettes are also present. They have been ...

'', the first superhero film to receive a Best Picture nomination and the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to win an Academy Award. In October 2019, he became chief creative officer of

Marvel Entertainment Marvel Entertainment, LLC (formerly Marvel Enterprises) is an American entertainment company founded in June 1998 and based in New York City, New York, formed by the merger of Marvel Entertainment Group and Toy Biz. The company is a wholly ow ...

Early life

Feige was born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in

Westfield, New Jersey Westfield is a Town (New Jersey), town in Union County, New Jersey, Union County, New Jersey, United States, located southwest of Manhattan. As of the 2010 United States census, the town's population was 30,316, He moved to New Jersey at the age of eight and lived there until the age of eighteen. when he graduated from Westfield High School. His maternal grandfather, Robert E. Short, was a television producer in the 1950s, working on

soap operas A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

including '' The Guiding Light'' and '' As the World Turns''. After high school, Feige applied to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, the alma mater of his favorite directors:

George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the '' Star Wars'' and '' Indiana Jones'' franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as c ...

Ron Howard Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He first came to prominence as a child actor, guest-starring in several television series, including an episode of '' The Twilight Zone''. ...

and

Robert Zemeckis Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American filmmaker. He first came to public attention as the director of the action-adventure romantic comedy '' Romancing the Stone'' (1984), the science-fiction comedy '' Back to the Future'' film ...

. His first five applications were rejected, but he was accepted on the sixth. He graduated in 1995 with a degree in film.

Career

His early work includes being assistant to executive producer

Lauren Shuler Donner Lauren Diane Shuler Donner (born June 23, 1949) is an American film producer, who specializes in mainstream youth and family-oriented entertainment. She owned The Donners' Company with her late husband, director Richard Donner. Her films have ...

on ''

Volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates ...

'' and ''

You've Got Mail ''You've Got Mail'' is a 1998 American romantic comedy film directed by Nora Ephron and starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Inspired by the 1937 Hungarian play '' Parfumerie'' by Miklós László (which had earlier been adapted in 1940 as ''The S ...

.'' In 2000, he was hired by Marvel as a producer. On the first ''

X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, first appearing in Uncanny X-Men, ''The X-Men'' #1 by artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby and writer/editor Stan Lee in 1963. Although initially cancelled in ...

'' film, Donner made Feige an associate producer, due to his knowledge of the

Marvel Universe The Marvel Universe is a fictional shared universe where the stories in most American comic book titles and other media published by Marvel Comics take place. Super-teams such as the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Guardians o ...

. Impressing

Avi Arad Avi Arad (; he, אבי ארד; born 1948) is an Israeli-American film producer who became the CEO of the company Toy Biz in the 1990s and soon afterward became the chief creative officer of Marvel Entertainment, and the chairman, CEO, and founde ...

, he was hired to work as his second-in-command at

that same year. In the mid-2000s, Feige realized that although

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the Si ...

and the

had been licensed to

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

and

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...

, Marvel still owned the rights to the core members of the Avengers, and envisioned creating a shared universe just as creators

Stan Lee Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Publications which ...

and Jack Kirby had done with their comic books in the early 1960s. Feige was named president of production for Marvel Studios in March 2007. Feige received the Motion Picture Showman of the Year award at the ICG Publicists Guild Awards on February 22, 2013. For his work on ''

'', Feige received nominations for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

, a

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of ...

, and a Producers Guild of America Award. Feige was awarded the David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures by the Producers Guild of America in 2019. On September 26, 2019, it was reported that Feige was developing a ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...

'' film for

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is a business segment of The Walt Disney Company. The studio is best known for creating and producing the '' Star Wars'' and ...

. In October 2019, Feige, in addition to being President of Marvel Studios, was named chief creative officer for

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in ...

, Marvel Television and Marvel Animation.

Personal life

Feige married Caitlin, a

cardiothoracic Cardiothoracic surgery is the field of medicine involved in surgical treatment of organs inside the thoracic cavity — generally treatment of conditions of the heart (heart disease), lungs (lung disease), and other pleural or mediastinal struc ...

nurse, around 2007. They have two children: a daughter born in 2009, and a son born in 2012.

Filmography

Film

All films are as producer unless otherwise noted.

Television

Shorts

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Feige, Kevin 1973 births 21st-century American businesspeople American chief executives American chief executives in the media industry American film producers American film studio executives Disney executives Film producers from Massachusetts Film producers from New Jersey Inkpot Award winners Living people Marvel Entertainment people Marvel Studios people People from Boston People from Westfield, New Jersey USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni Westfield High School (New Jersey) alumni