Marlowe graduated from
Columbia University in 1988 with a degree in
English Literature, and attended the
University of Southern California where he obtained his
MFA in
Screenwriting in 1992.
Screenwriting Marlowe’s USC thesis script,
The Lehigh Pirates, won him one of the prestigious
Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting for emerging writers from the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science. During the Nicholl Fellowship ceremony, he was introduced to one of the other winners that year,
Terri Edda Miller, who would later become his wife and collaborator. Marlowe’s first produced
screenplay was the 1997 action-thriller
Air Force One which he sold as an original script to
Beacon Pictures. Directed and co-produced by
Wolfgang Petersen, the film was a box office success and received mostly positive critical reviews. It became the fifth highest-grossing film of 1997, earning $315.2 million worldwide. It scored the highest opening weekend for an R-rated film, a title it held for three years. He followed up
Air Force One with 1999’s action horror film
End of Days, directed by
Peter Hyams and starring
Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the
Kevin Bacon-led,
Paul Verhoeven-directed thriller
Hollow Man in 2000.
Television He is the creator and
executive producer of the
ABC TV series
Castle, which he also frequently wrote. The series ran for 173 episodes over eight seasons, with Marlowe show-running and executive producing the first seven. Over the course of its run, the show won four consecutive
People’s Choice Awards for Favorite TV Crime Drama, as well as an
ALMA Award,
Prism Award, Imogen Award, several TV Guide Awards, and two
Primetime Emmy Awards Nominations. During the production of Castle, Marlowe and
Terri Edda Miller (who also served as an Executive Producer on the show), teamed up to create MilMar Pictures. Their first project,
Take Two, was ordered straight-to-series by ABC on November 16, 2017, with German
RTL Group's channel
VOX and French
France 2 instantly joining them. The lighthearted detective procedural starred
Rachel Bilson and
Eddie Cibrian and ran for one season. In November 2019, it was announced that Marlowe and Miller, in partnership with
Queen Latifah,
Debra Martin Chase, and
Davis Entertainment, would launch a revival of the 1980s TV series
The Equalizer for
CBS. In January 2020, the script was ordered to
pilot, with Latifah to star and Miller and Marlowe set to write, produce, and show-run the series under the MilMar Pictures banner. The
reboot of The Equalizer premiered right after the 2021
Super Bowl and drew over 20 million viewers. At the conclusion of its second season,
The Equalizer received a rare two-season pickup from CBS. Having shepherded the production through the worst of the
COVID-19 pandemic, and wanting to embody the ideals of the show, Marlowe and Miller stepped back as showrunners at the end of Season Two, stating “It’s been an honor and privilege to work with one of the most talented casts and crews in the business. Now, in the spirit of The Equalizer, it’s time to raise up other important voices who we know will carry the heart and soul of this show.” The pair continue to serve as executive producers.
Novels Marlowe produced a series of
tie-in novels for
Castle, ostensibly written by the show's fictional title character (the books were initially ghost-written by Tom Straw).
Heat Wave, a mystery novel published September 28, 2009 debuted at number 26 on
The New York Times Best Seller list. == Personal life ==