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Jay Wadley

Jay Wadley

Composer

Jay Wadley is a NY-based composer and music producer, a two-time winner of the Charles Ives Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was featured in IndieWires' 2020 and 2016's 10 Best Scores of the Year. He recently scored Charlie Kaufman's psychological drama/thriller I'm Thinking of Ending Things, for which he also composed an original ballet, an original song co-written with Kaufman in the form of a hallucinatory 1950s ice-cream jingle, and produced two songs from the musical "Oklahoma!". Other recent projects include Oscar-winning director Ben Cleary's Swan Song(Apple/Anonymous), Minhal Baig's feature We Grown Now(Participant/Sony), Hulu's hit show Tell Me Lies from Meaghan Oppenheimer, Heidi Ewing's 2020 Sundance NEXT award-winning narrative debut I Carry You with Me (Sony Pictures Classics), a commissioned modern dance piece from CoLab Ensemble for The Guggenheim's works in process series, Emma Tammi's Blood Moon (Blumhouse/Hulu) and additional music and percussion on M. Night Shyamalan's OLD.

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Biography from IMDb.

Works as
Composer
Titles
29 on MovieCove · 38 credits in all
TMDB popularity, last 157 days to Oct 28Down 15% in 30 days

What are Jay Wadley's films like?

Across their 22 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Bonds and Self.

Genres

What they feel like to watch

their average across 22 films
ToneFeelDemandtheir average · filled zone: the category

A split, not a type: Light 10 · Serious 4 · Dark 8

Grounded 14 · Stylized 6 · Heightened 2

Gentle 6 · Charged 12 · Intense 4

Steady 15 · Shifting 6 · Whiplash 1

A split, not a type: Straight-faced 12 · Some laughs 6 · Funny 4

Slow burn 15 · Even-paced 7 · Relentless 0

A split, not a type: Casual 11 · Engaged 8 · Full focus 3

A split, not a type: Easy watch 6 · Affecting 7 · Heavy 9

A split, not a type: Resolved 13 · Open-ended 7 · Ambiguous 2

Moods and endings

endings are an aggregate; no title is named

Dominant moods · mentions across their titles

Melancholic
8
Tense
7
Contemplative
10
Bittersweet
7
Hopeful
8
Other
21

How their films end · 1 with a twist

  • Happy2
  • Bittersweet13
  • Ambiguous5
  • Cyclical2

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 Jay Wadley's films?

As of October 24, 2026, 24 of their 29 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service.

Subscription and free streaming for Jay Wadley'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

38 credits, 29 with a MovieCove page; 1 appearance as themselves is hidden until asked for.

  • Trash Mountain (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2026)

    Composer

  • We Strangers(2024)

    Composer

    Midcredits score: 40th percentile of all films
  • Henry Johnson(2025)

    Composer

    Midcredits score: 39th percentile of all films
  • The Wedding Banquet(2025)

    Composer

    Midcredits score: 58th percentile of all films
  • The Friend(2024)

    Composer

    Midcredits score: 61st percentile of all films
  • Control Freak(2025)

    Composer

    Midcredits score: 8th percentile of all films
  • Heart Eyes(2025)

    Composer

    Midcredits score: 40th percentile of all films
  • Before(2024)

    Show 10 episodes · Composer

    Midcredits score: 12th percentile of all shows
  • We Grown Now(2023)

    Composer

    Midcredits score: 75th percentile of all films
  • Franklin(2024)

    Show 8 episodes · Composer

    Midcredits score: 48th percentile of all shows
  • Fire Island(2022)

    Composer

    Midcredits score: 76th percentile of all films
  • Swan Song(2021)

    Composer

    Midcredits score: 79th percentile of all films
  • I Carry You with Me(2020)

    Composer

    Midcredits score: 75th percentile of all films
  • Blood Moon (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2021)

    Composer

  • The Box (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2021)

    Composer

  • Driveways(2019)

    Composer · Conductor

    Midcredits score: 88th percentile of all films
  • The Water Walker (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2020)

    Composer

  • Midcredits score: 64th percentile of all films
  • The Innocence Files(2020)

    Show 3 episodes · Composer

    Midcredits score: 86th percentile of all shows
  • Adam(2019)

    Composer

    Midcredits score: 9th percentile of all films
  • Tales of the City(2019)

    Show 10 episodes · Composer

    Midcredits score: 60th percentile of all shows
  • Olympic Dreams(2019)

    Composer

    Midcredits score: 37th percentile of all films
  • Cruise(2018)

    Composer

    Midcredits score: 28th percentile of all films
  • A Year (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2018)

    Composer

  • Hot Date(2017)

    Show 20 episodes · Composer

    Midcredits score: 60th percentile of all shows
  • Long Shot(2017)

    Composer

    Midcredits score: 93rd percentile of all films
  • Tracktown(2016)

    Composer

    Midcredits score: 31st percentile of all films
  • Revolving Doors (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2017)

    Composer

  • Double Play (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2017)

    Composer

  • Lucia, Before and After (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2017)

    Composer

  • The OA(2016)

    Show 2 episodes · Composer

    Midcredits score: 81st percentile of all shows
  • Indignation(2016)

    Composer

    Midcredits score: 72nd percentile of all films
  • Time Out of Mind(2014)

    Additional Music

    Midcredits score: 40th percentile of all films
  • Fair Chase(2014)

    Composer

    Midcredits score: 43rd percentile of all films (provisional, few ratings)
  • Midcredits score: 19th percentile of all films
  • Midcredits score: 92nd percentile of all films
  • Midcredits score: 72nd percentile of all films
  • Lyiza (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2011)

    Composer

Career shape

A full career of 36 titles from 2011 to 2026.

By role

only this rolewith another role
Music36 of 36: 35 only music, 1 with another role · typical Midcredits score60thOther crew1 of 36: 0 only other crew, 1 with another role

By decade

2010s17 · crew2020s19 · crew

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 Jay Wadley's films land?

Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 58th percentile, the median of all 23; across their 22 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 63rd percentile for acclaim.

Acclaim · how much people like their films

63rdpercentile
Typical film, the median of 22

Approval · how many liked their films

55thpercentile
Typical film, the median of 22

Reach · how many have seen their films

79thpercentile
Typical film, the median of 22

Midcredits score across 29 titles, by percentile

  • 75th and up9
  • 50th to 74th7
  • 25th to 49th9
  • Below 25th4

Shape of the crowd

12 of their 29 titles are Mixed.

  • Universally Loved2
  • Divisive1
  • Cult Classic2
  • Crowd Pleaser11
  • Broadly Agreed1
  • Mixed12

Reviewers score the sound and music 62/100 in their films, across 13 reviewed titles; fans 71, detractors 42. The element that speaks to their work as a composer.

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 Jay Wadley's work okay for kids?

Across up to 10 MovieCove titles with content scores, sex & nudity and profanity run heavier than most films.

Their medianMedian of all filmsMiddle 80% of their titles
Violence & Gore6 titles12–81 · median 37 · moderatenear the median of all filmsMedian of all films: 44
Sex & Nudity10 titles16–64 · median 44 · moderateheavier than most filmsMedian of all films: 32
Profanity8 titles50–75 · median 65 · intenseheavier than most filmsMedian of all films: 36
Alcohol & Drugs4 titlesmedian 35 · mildMedian of all films: 33
Frightening / Intense4 titlesmedian 60 · intenseMedian of all films: 39

Severity 0–100 from the Content Guide. Categories with under 10 votes on a title are not counted. The band's colour is the severity of their median, named beside it.

Who does Jay Wadley work with?

People who share at least 2 of Jay Wadley's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; James Schamus shares the most, 6.

Directors

Writers

Actors

Composers and cinematographers

Producers