Jason Orley is an American writer-director originally from Michigan. He grew up in Michigan with two older brothers and attended Lahser High School in the Detroit area, where he was exposed to film and TV production early on through a high school program and was accepted into NYU’s summer high school film program. During or after college, he interned for Nancy Meyers, including on It’s Complicated (2009) and later appeared as an actor in The Intern (2015). Orley’s debut feature film was Big Time Adolescence (2019), which he both wrote and directed. The screenplay for Big Time Adolescence had been one of his earliest, and it was written while he was in his early twenties; it appeared on the 2014 Black List. The film made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019 and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in Drama. His second feature as director is I Want You Back (2022), a romantic comedy starring Charlie Day and Jenny Slate. In addition to feature films, Orley has done TV work as a writer (for example, Graves on Epix) and developed pilots for various networks and streaming platforms. Known for writing from personal experience, Orley has said that Big Time Adolescence was inspired by aspects of his childhood—growing up with older brothers, having mentors or role models who were not conventional, and exploring friendship and identity in adolescence. His style tends to favour authenticity, allowing characters to breathe rather than strictly controlling every detail, and staying grounded in emotional truth, even in comedic scenarios.
Read moreShow less
Biography from TMDB.
- Director, writer and actor
- 8 on MovieCove · 10 credits in all
What are Jason Orley's films like?
Across their 7 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Self and Bonds.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 1 · Earnest 5
Light 6 · Serious 0 · Dark 0
Grounded 6 · Stylized 0 · Heightened 0
Gentle 5 · Charged 1 · Intense 0
Steady 5 · Shifting 1 · Whiplash 0
Straight-faced 0 · Some laughs 2 · Funny 4
Slow burn 4 · Even-paced 2 · Relentless 0
Casual 6 · Engaged 0 · Full focus 0
Easy watch 6 · Affecting 0 · Heavy 0
Resolved 6 · Open-ended 0 · Ambiguous 0
Moods and endings
- Happy2
- Bittersweet2
- Ambiguous2
- Cyclical1
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 Jason Orley's films?
As of October 24, 2026, all 8 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service, most on Netflix (3).
Subscription and free streaming for Jason Orley'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
10 credits, 8 with a MovieCove page.
Midcredits score: 55th percentile of all films
Bupkis(2023)
Midcredits score: 55th percentile of all shows
Midcredits score: 12th percentile of all films
I Want You Back(2022)
Midcredits score: 63rd percentile of all films
Big Time Adolescence(2019)
Midcredits score: 80th percentile of all films
Midcredits score: 53rd percentile of all films
Graves(2016)
Midcredits score: 28th percentile of all shows
The Intern(2015)
Midcredits score: 85th percentile of all films
Close Personal Friends (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)
Untitled Baby Love Project (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)
Career shape
A full career of 10 titles, 8 of them dated from 2015 to 2024.
Film career
- 2015Screen debut· The Intern
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.
Awards
Nominated for a Sundance award in 2019, Dramatic.
Major bodies only: the Oscars, Primetime Emmys, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Screen Actors Guild Awards are named; Cannes, Venice, the Berlinale, Sundance, the directors', writers' and producers' guilds, the Grammys, Critics Choice and the Independent Spirit Awards count as other major bodies. Festival and regional prizes are not counted. Source: IMDb.
How do Jason Orley's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 59th percentile, the median of all 6; across their 6 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 62nd percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up2
- 50th to 74th4
- 25th to 49th1
- Below 25th1
Shape of the crowd
4 of their 8 titles are Crowd Pleasers.
- Crowd Pleaser4
- Mixed4
Reviewers score the atmosphere 57/100 and the pacing 42/100 in their films, across 6 reviewed titles. The element that speaks to their work as a director.
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.
Is Jason Orley's work okay for kids?
Across a limited sample of up to 4 MovieCove titles with content scores.
Severity 0–100 from the Content Guide. Categories with under 10 votes on a title are not counted.
Who does Jason Orley work with?
People who share at least 2 of Jason Orley's MovieCove titles; Pete Davidson shares the most, 5.
- Pete DavidsonShared titles: Pete Davidson: Turbo Fonzarelli (2024), Bupkis (2023), Pete Davidson Presents: The Best Friends (2022), Pete Davidson: Alive from New York (2020), Big Time Adolescence (2019)See all 5 shared titles with Pete Davidson
- Alex PanagosShared titles: Pete Davidson: Turbo Fonzarelli (2024), Pete Davidson Presents: The Best Friends (2022)See all 2 shared titles with Alex Panagos
