The Duffer Brothers

Early career

After the brothers had written and directed several short films, they wrote a script titled "Origin", which gained them an agent, and their script for the post-apocalyptic horror film Hidden was acquired by Warner Bros. Pictures in 2011.^[3] The brothers directed Hidden, which was released in 2015. Next they were hired as writers and producers for the Fox television series Wayward Pines. As of 2024, they were also the executive producers of a Netflix show called The Boroughs, described as a supernatural drama set in a retirement community in the New Mexico desert.^[4]

Breakthrough with Stranger Things

With experience in television, they began pitching their idea for Stranger Things, which Dan Cohen eventually brought to Shawn Levy. Backed by Levy's 21 Laps production company, the show was quickly picked up by Netflix.^[5][6] The show is set in 1980s Indiana and is an homage to 1980s pop culture,^[7] inspired and aesthetically informed by the works of Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Sam Raimi, David Lynch, Stephen King, and George Lucas, among others.^[8][9] It was released on July 15, 2016, to overwhelming praise,^[10] and began to develop a cult following online.^[11]

On September 30, 2019, Netflix announced it had signed the Duffers for additional films and television shows over the coming years.^[12]

In March 2021, the duo announced they will team up with Spielberg to adapt Stephen King's and Peter Straub's The Talisman as a Netflix series. They will both be executive producers via Amblin Partners and Monkey Massacre and have hired Curtis Gwinn, who worked as a writer-executive producer on Stranger Things, to act as writer and showrunner of the project.^[13]

Following the premiere of the fourth season of Stranger Things in July 2022, the Duffers launched the production company Upside Down Pictures, for which they recommitted to Netflix with several new projects. Among these include a live-action series adaptation of Death Note, a series adaptation of The Talisman, and the Stranger Things spin-off series Tales from '85.^[14]

Paramount

In August 2025, it was announced that the brothers and their company would be signing a four-year deal at Paramount, which results in the duo's departure from their long-time partnership at Netflix in April 2026. Their deal at Paramount will not only create new series from the studio's TV and streaming division, but also offers an opportunity for the brothers to produce and direct theatrical feature films for the studio as well, something that the duo weren't able to do while signed with Netflix.^[15][16][17]