Andy and Larry Wachowski were born to a Polish-American family in Chicago. The Wachowskis jokingly claim to have begun their collaboration as toddlers. Their mother, Lynne, was a nurse and painter, and their father, Ron, was a businessman. They went to Kellogg Elementary School, in Chicago's Beverly area. Both brothers graduated from Whitney Young High School, a public high school known for its performing arts and science curriculum, in 1983 and '86. They weren't seen as stand outs at Whitney Young - students recall them playing Dungeons & Dragons and working in the school's theater and TV program, but they were always behind the scenes. Afterwards, Andy went to Emerson College in Boston. Larry went to Bard College in upstate New York. After dropping out of college, they ran a carpentry business in Chicago while creating comic books in their free time and developing their ideas for the Matrix Trilogy.
The brothers admit to a love for telling multipart stories. "Because we grew up on comic books and the Tolkien trilogy, one of the things we're interested in is bringing serial fiction to cinema," Larry explains. Andy puts his desire to shake up viewers a bit more bluntly: "We think movies are fairly boring and predictable. We want to screw with audiences' expectations."
Prior to working in the film industry, the Wachowski brothers wrote comic books for Marvel Comics' Razorline imprint, namely Ectokid (created by horror novelist Clive Barker) in 1993 as well as writing for EPIC Comics "Clive Barker's Hellraiser" and "Clive Barker's Nightbreed" comic series.
In 2003, they created Burlyman Entertainment and have released comic books based on The Matrix as well two original bi-monthly series:
During Skroce's run on the Marvel Comics series Gambit, he helped create a pair of bounty hunters, the Mengo Brothers (Stanislaus and Gregori Mengochauschras), as adversaries, who resemble the Wachowskis.
Shortly after the release of Matrix Reloaded, it was rumored that Larry Wachowski began to make small public appearances dressed as a woman, using the name Lana Wachowski. In his column, published May 30, 2003, David Poland said "Every indication I have says that Larry Wachowski is now in the process of changing his sex. Dressing in public like a woman, taking female hormones and yes, having a sex change operation." This was further supported by a March 2006 San Francisco Chronicle article on transgender people, which repeated that Larry Wachowski, "has changed his sex and is now living as Lana Wachowski". The rumor is likely exacerbated by Larry Wachowski's supposed penchant for cross-dressing, as reported by Rolling Stone.
However, in a 2007 interview Joel Silver, the producer of numerous Wachowski films, stated that the rumors concerning Larry's sex change were "all untrue," further explaining, "they just don’t do interviews, so people make things up." Similar statements were made by crew members working on the Speed Racer film, with one employee pointing out, "on the call sheets, it still says Larry."
