Rise to Fame
He came up at Troma Films in the mid-90s, co-writing Tromeo and Juliet for Lloyd Kaufman and learning filmmaking from the most disreputable studio in New York. The Scooby-Doo screenplays paid the bills. Guardians of the Galaxy rewired everything. Marvel handed him their weirdest, least-known property (a raccoon, a talking tree, a walking 80s mixtape) and he turned it into the highest-grossing domestic film of 2014. Most people thought it was going to be a disaster. Most people were wrong.
In the Spotlight
Disney fired him in July 2018 after conservative operatives dug up decade-old offensive tweets. The entire Guardians cast signed an open letter demanding his reinstatement, and Warner Bros. quietly hired him to write and direct The Suicide Squad while he was still out of a job. Disney rehired him eight months later. He now runs DC Studios as co-CEO with Peter Safran. His Superman cleared $235 million in its first ten days, which makes the firing look like the best career pivot anyone got without planning it.
Side Notes
He has said he started making zombie films at 12 with his brothers in the woods of suburban Missouri, which goes a long way toward explaining his aesthetic. Five siblings, several in the industry. His brother Sean plays Kraglin in all three Guardians films. Before Hollywood, he briefly fronted a rock band called the Icons, who released exactly one album titled Mom, We Like It Here on Earth. His MFA from Columbia is how he connected with Kaufman at Troma. The disreputable B-movie apprenticeship shaped everything.