Matt and Ross Duffer, the twin writer-director pair who created the show, showed an early interest in filmmaking, experimenting with home movies as early as third grade. After starting out with an Hi8 video camera their parents gave them, the duo pursued their shared interest in the field by studying film at Chapman University.
Their first movie was Hidden, a horror movie which didn't receive wide release but did catch the attention of M. Night Shyamalan, who hired the pair to work on his series Wayward Pines. That hands-on television experience gave the brothers the start they needed to pitch their own series to producers, and with the help of producers Dan Cohen and Shawn Levy, the show was eventually sold to Netflix (but only after being rejected by at least 15 other networks).
