Rob Marshall

Rob Marshall, born Robert Doyle Marshall Jr. on October 17, 1960, in Madison, Wisconsin, is an American director, choreographer, and producer who began his career as a Broadway performer before transitioning into choreography and film direction. His father, Robert Doyle Marshall Sr., was a Ph.D. student and later associate professor of English and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, while his mother, Anne, worked as a teacher for Pittsburgh Public Schools and at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education. His younger sister, Kathleen, also became a choreographer and director. The family relocated to Pittsburgh in 1964 when his father joined the University of Pittsburgh's English department.

Marshall attended the Falk School and graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School in 1978, later being inducted into that school's alumni hall of fame. He earned his degree from Carnegie Mellon University in 1982, and prior to his Broadway career performed with companies including Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. His Broadway performing career spanned 1982 to 1985 and included credits in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Rink, Zorba, and Cats. A herniated disc sustained while performing in Cats brought his performing career to a close, after which he recovered and moved into choreography and then directing. His choreography work earned him Tony Award nominations for Best Choreography in both 1998 and 1999.

Marshall made his film directing debut with a television adaptation of the musical Annie, written by Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin. He subsequently directed the 2002 film adaptation of the Kander and Ebb musical Chicago, which earned him the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing in a Feature Film, along with nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director, the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, and the BAFTA Award for Best Direction. The film was based on the stage musical, itself derived from the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins.

His next feature, Memoirs of a Geisha, was adapted from Arthur Golden's novel of the same name and starred Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, and Ken Watanabe. The film won three Academy Awards and grossed $162.2 million at the worldwide box office. Marshall followed that with Nine in 2009, an adaptation of the Broadway production of the same name, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren, and Penélope Cruz, who received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. That same year, Marshall was announced as director of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the fourth installment in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean series, starring Johnny Depp, Penélope Cruz, Ian McShane, and Geoffrey Rush. The film opened on May 20, 2011, and grossed $1 billion worldwide.

Marshall continued his association with Disney by directing the 2014 film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods, which he also produced through his Lucamar Productions banner. He then directed Mary Poppins Returns, a sequel to the 1964 film Mary Poppins, which reunited two Into the Woods cast members: Emily Blunt in the title role and Meryl Streep in a supporting part. By December 2018, Marshall was officially confirmed to direct a live-action and CGI adaptation of The Little Mermaid. In 2024, he was hired to replace Bill Condon as director of a remake of Guys and Dolls, on which he will also serve as co-producer and co-write the screenplay alongside John DeLuca, John Requa, and Glenn Ficarra.

Marshall is gay and has lived in New York City with his husband, producer and choreographer John DeLuca, whom he married in 2012. In 2004, the couple purchased a summer home in Sagaponack, New York, in the Hamptons, for $4.2 million.