Aaron Cooley is a Norman Lear Sentinel Award-winning writer, producer and showrunner, and Creator of Showtime's limited series The First Lady. The event series garnered several award nominations, including three Emmy noms, numerous accolades for Michelle Pfeiffer's performance as Betty Ford, and recognition of Aaron himself by the Hollywood Critics Association as a nominee for best writing for television. A graduate of Yale's Theatre Studies program, Aaron served as Head of Development for iconic director Joel Schumacher for more than a decade. Since transitioning to his own writing career, Aaron has created scripted shows for Amazon Prime Video, Skydance Sports, Lionsgate and MTV, as well as served as a staff writer at Netflix. He is now developing new projects with Universal Content Productions, Keshet Media Group, Doug Liman, Patrick Wilson, Jeremy Garelick, Chinonye Chukwu, Matt Jackson and bestselling authors Christina Lauren and Connie Willis. Aaron recently co-authored The Justice with living legend James Patterson, an Audible audio drama starring Sanaa Lathan, which was nominated for two 2025 Podcast Academy "Ambies," including Best Fiction Podcast. Aaron has published three other thriller novels, including Shaken, Not Stirred, named one of the Best Books of the Year by IndieReader.com. Aaron does most of his Zooms from the home he shares with Whitney and Beatrix ...who graciously put up with his moaning about the Portland Trailblazers.
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Biography from IMDb.
- Portland, Oregon, USA
- Writer and producer, also actor
- 4 on MovieCove · 5 credits in all
What are Aaron Cooley's films like?
Across a limited sample of 4 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Bonds and Survival.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 0 · Earnest 3
Light 1 · Serious 1 · Dark 1
Grounded 1 · Stylized 2 · Heightened 0
A split, not a type: Gentle 0 · Charged 1 · Intense 2
Steady 1 · Shifting 1 · Whiplash 1
Straight-faced 2 · Some laughs 1 · Funny 0
Slow burn 0 · Even-paced 3 · Relentless 0
Casual 1 · Engaged 2 · Full focus 0
A split, not a type: Easy watch 1 · Affecting 0 · Heavy 2
A split, not a type: Resolved 1 · Open-ended 2 · Ambiguous 0
Roles they play
- Allyas Jonathon Smith in Wee Sing Together (1985)
Moods and endings
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 Aaron Cooley's films?
As of October 24, 2026, all 4 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service, most on Tubi (2).
Subscription and free streaming for Aaron Cooley'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
5 credits, 4 with a MovieCove page.
The First Lady (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2022)
Midcredits score: 25th percentile of all shows
Twelve(2010)
Midcredits score: 27th percentile of all films
Blood Creek(2009)
Midcredits score: 20th percentile of all films
Wee Sing Together(1985)
Midcredits score: 91st percentile of all films
Career shape
A full career of 2 titles from 2018 to 2022.
Biggest box office
Twelve (2010)
Highest rated
Twelve (2010)
Most popular right now
Best. Worst. Weekend. Ever. (2018)
Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it.
How do Aaron Cooley's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 27th percentile, the median of all 3; across a limited sample of 3 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 23rd percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up1
- 25th to 49th2
- Below 25th1
Shape of the crowd
3 of their 4 titles are Mixed.
- Crowd Pleaser1
- Mixed3
Reviewers score the plot and story 32/100 in their films, across 3 reviewed titles; fans 41, detractors 17. The element that speaks to their work as a writer.
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 Aaron Cooley work with?
People who share at least 2 of Aaron Cooley's MovieCove titles; Joel Schumacher shares the most, 2.
- Joel SchumacherShared titles: Twelve (2010), Blood Creek (2009)See all 2 shared titles with Joel Schumacher
- Mark StevensShared titles: Best. Worst. Weekend. Ever. (2018), Blood Creek (2009)See all 2 shared titles with Mark Stevens