John Buffalo Mailer is an award winning screenwriter, journalist, playwright, actor, and producer. In October of 2000 he founded Back House Productions in New York City with three other Wesleyan graduates, including the TONY Award Winning Director for Hamilton, Thomas Kail. Back House became the 1st resident theater company of The Drama Bookshop's Arthur Seelan Theater in 2001, where they developed several plays including the 2008 TONY Award Winner for Best Musical, In The Heights by Lin-Manuel Miranda. John has been published in three books of collected essays, has published two plays, has had four feature screenplays produced, and has been an editor for four national magazines including the infamous High Times. The New York Premiere of John's first play, Hello Herman, was Directed by Thomas Kail in 2002, and was published by Dramatists Play Services in the Spring of 2010 after the LA premiere. Smith and Krauss included an excerpt from Hello Herman in their Best Monologues of 2011 publication, and the feature film starring Norman Reedus was released in 2012, earning the screenplay the Social Relevance Award at the 2012 Monaco International Film Festival. As an actor, he cut his teeth at The Actors Studio at the age of twelve and went on to perform in a dozen plays in New York City throughout the 2000's. As a screen actor, Buffalo has appeared opposite Shia LaBeouf in Oliver Stone's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Paul Giamatti and Ellen Burstyn in Matthew Barney's River Of Fundament, Tony Sirico in Friends And Romans, Alec Baldwin, Demi Moore, and Dylan McDermott in Blind (which he also wrote), Sienna Miller in Private Life Of A Modern Woman. He starred in The Second Sun, American Terrorist, and DieRy (the second two of which he also wrote and produced), and in 2023 co-starred in Michelle Danner's Miranda's Victim opposite Abigail Breslin, Ryan Phillippe, Luke Wilson, Emily VanCamp, Andy Garcia, Josh Bowman, Kyle MacLachlan, and Donald Sutherland. In 2024, he executive produced the award-winning documentary How to Come Alive with Norman Mailer. He is married to the writer Olivia Rutigliano.
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Biography from IMDb.
- April 16, 1978 (48)
- Actor, writer and producer
- 13 on MovieCove · 17 credits in all
What are John Buffalo Mailer's films like?
Across their 8 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Survival and Morality.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 0 · Earnest 8
A split, not a type: Light 1 · Serious 3 · Dark 4
Grounded 6 · Stylized 2 · Heightened 0
Gentle 0 · Charged 5 · Intense 3
Steady 3 · Shifting 4 · Whiplash 1
Straight-faced 8 · Some laughs 0 · Funny 0
Slow burn 4 · Even-paced 4 · Relentless 0
Casual 1 · Engaged 6 · Full focus 1
Easy watch 0 · Affecting 4 · Heavy 4
Resolved 1 · Open-ended 5 · Ambiguous 2
Roles they play
- Heraldas Max in The Second Sun (2018)
- Shapeshifteras Jack Wright in American Terrorist (2020)
Moods and endings
- Bittersweet3
- Tragic1
- Ambiguous4
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch John Buffalo Mailer's films?
As of October 24, 2026, 8 of their 13 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service, most on Tubi (6).
Subscription and free streaming for John Buffalo Mailer's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
17 credits, 13 with a MovieCove page.
Miranda's Victim(2023)
Midcredits score: 69th percentile of all films
Midcredits score: 85th percentile of all films
The Madness Inside Me(2020)
Midcredits score: 44th percentile of all films
DieRy(2020)
Midcredits score: 33rd percentile of all films
American Terrorist(2020)
Midcredits score: 27th percentile of all films (provisional, few ratings)
The Second Sun(2018)
Midcredits score: 35th percentile of all films (provisional, few ratings)
An Imperfect Murder(2017)
Midcredits score: 5th percentile of all films
Blind(2016)
Midcredits score: 38th percentile of all filmsThe Jingoist (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2016)
River of Fundament (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2014)
Hello Herman(2012)
Midcredits score: 45th percentile of all films
Midcredits score: 45th percentile of all films
W.(2008)
Midcredits score: 50th percentile of all films
Kettle of Fish(2006)
Midcredits score: 15th percentile of all films
Black & White(1999)
Midcredits score: 17th percentile of all films
Jack and Jill (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)
Little Audrey (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)
Career shape
Star power in the 57th percentile of 239,109 people with a billed film role, over a full career of 16 titles, 14 of them dated from 1999 to 2023; peak year 2017.
Film career
Peak 2017 · fewer prominent film roles lately. Film roles by billing, audience size and rating; 25+ votes. A show carries a single first-air date, so shows are not on the curve.
- 2017Screen debut· Blind
Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it. The ring is the typical Midcredits score (the median percentile) of the role's titles that are on MovieCove, shown from 5 scored.
How do John Buffalo Mailer's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 38th percentile, the median of all 13; across their 8 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 26th percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up1
- 50th to 74th2
- 25th to 49th7
- Below 25th3
Shape of the crowd
5 of their 13 titles are Mixed.
- Divisive3
- Cult Classic1
- Crowd Pleaser3
- Broadly Agreed1
- Mixed5
Reviewers score the acting 57/100 in their films, across 6 reviewed titles; fans 77, detractors 36. The element that speaks to their work as an actor.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Who does John Buffalo Mailer work with?
People who share at least 2 of John Buffalo Mailer's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Jennifer Gelfer shares the most, 5.
Directors
- Jennifer GelferShared titles: DieRy (2020), The Madness Inside Me (2020), The Second Sun (2018), An Imperfect Murder (2017), Blind (2016)See all 5 shared titles with Jennifer Gelfer
Actors
- Jocelyn JonesShared titles: DieRy (2020), The Madness Inside Me (2020), The Second Sun (2018)See all 3 shared titles with Jocelyn Jones
- Nick MathewsShared titles: DieRy (2020), The Madness Inside Me (2020), An Imperfect Murder (2017)See all 3 shared titles with Nick Mathews
- Ciaran ByrneShared titles: DieRy (2020), The Second Sun (2018)See all 2 shared titles with Ciaran Byrne
- Claudia MareeShared titles: DieRy (2020), The Second Sun (2018)See all 2 shared titles with Claudia Maree
Cinematographers and editors
- Jim MolShared titles: DieRy (2020), Blind (2016)See all 2 shared titles with Jim Mol
- Mattia PalombiShared titles: The Madness Inside Me (2020), The Second Sun (2018)See all 2 shared titles with Mattia Palombi
Producers
- Martin TuchmanShared titles: DieRy (2020), The Madness Inside Me (2020), The Second Sun (2018), An Imperfect Murder (2017), Blind (2016)See all 5 shared titles with Martin Tuchman
- Alessandro PenazziShared titles: The Second Sun (2018), An Imperfect Murder (2017), Blind (2016)See all 3 shared titles with Alessandro Penazzi
- Michael MailerShared titles: The Second Sun (2018), An Imperfect Murder (2017), Blind (2016)See all 3 shared titles with Michael Mailer
- Harris TulchinShared titles: American Terrorist (2020), DieRy (2020)See all 2 shared titles with Harris Tulchin