Jared and Jerusha Hess

In 2022, it was announced that Jared will direct the film adaptation of Minecraft, with Jason Momoa starring.

Jared co-directed (with Tyler Measom) a true crime docu-series Murder Among the Mormons, which premiered on Netflix on March 3, 2021.

Jared was among the executive producers for the Fox TV series Making History, which premiered in 2017.

Jared directed the comedy heist film Masterminds (2016).

Jared and Jerusha Hess are also among the executive producers of the Napoleon Dynamite series that aired in 2012. In addition, Jared voiced Don Moser, a returning character originally portrayed by Trevor Snarr in the film.

In 2011, Jerusha directed a film adaptation of the book Austenland, which was released in 2013. She also co-wrote the screenplay.

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, Markus T. Boddie, was an African-American.

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.

Besides 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 Pride and Prejudice: A Latter-day Comedy. Their second movie Nacho Libre, starring Jack Black, was released on June 16, 2006.

Jerusha was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and Jared was born in Glendale, Arizona. Jared is a graduate of Burton Elementary School located in Kaysville, Utah, which he attended while living in Fruit Heights during his youth. He also attended Manhattan High School in Kansas for two years before transferring to Preston High School in Idaho, from which he graduated in 1997. Many scenes from Napoleon Dynamite were filmed there. As a teenager Jared worked in film production with T. C. Christensen.

Jared Lawrence Hess (born July 18, 1979) and Jerusha Elizabeth Hess (née Demke; born May 12, 1980) are husband-and-wife American filmmakers best known for their work on Napoleon Dynamite (2004), Nacho Libre (2006) and Gentlemen Broncos (2009), all of which they co-wrote and which were directed by Jared (Nacho Libre was co-written with Mike White).