Jared Lawrence Hess and Jerusha Elizabeth Hess are husband-and-wife American filmmakers known for their work on Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre and Gentlemen Broncos, all of which they co-wrote and which were directed by Jared. They also produced music videos for The Postal Service's third single, "We Will Become Silhouettes", and The Killers' Christmas charity single "Boots".
Jared met Jerusha while attending Brigham Young University'sfilm school. Together they co-wrote the film Napoleon Dynamite, which was produced and edited by their classmate Jeremy Coon. While at BYU, Jared wrote and directed a student film entitled Cardboard Only, which is about a seven-year-old Idaho farm boy who struggles to escape boredom while wearing a cardboard box over his head. While at BYU, Jared also wrote and directed a short film entitled Peluca, which became a prototype for Napoleon Dynamite and featured much of the same cast and plotline, including Jon Heder as Seth, "super nerd extraordinaire." Besides his efforts on Napoleon Dynamite and Peluca, Jared has worked as a camera assistant in a number of films and has played minor roles in a few Latter-day Saint comedies. These include The Singles Ward, The R.M. and . Their second movie Nacho Libre, starring Jack Black, was released on June 16, 2006. The third major film made by the Hesses, Gentlemen Broncos, was released in 2009. It is about a teenager who aspires to be a writer, but after attending a fantasy-writer's convention, he finds that his idea has been stolen by an established novelist. The film stars Michael Angarano as the teenager, Jemaine Clement as the established novelist, and Sam Rockwell as the story's fictional title character who appears in book-come-to-life sequences. In 2010, Jared created ads for the Utah State Fair which were run on the radio, but refused on television. The Utah State Fair representatives claimed they refused to run them due to sexual overtones, while Hess claimed the failure to run the ads was because the main actor in them, Marcus T. Boddie, was an African-American. In 2011, Jerusha directed a film adaptation of the book Austenland, which was released in 2013. She also co-wrote the screenplay. Jared and Jerusha Hess are also among the executive producers of the Napoleon Dynamite TV series that aired in 2012. In addition, Jared voiced Don Moser, a returning character originally portrayed by Trevor Snarr in the film. Jared directed the comedy heist film Masterminds. Jared was among the executive producers for the Fox TV series Making History, which premiered in 2017.
