Born and raised in Philadelphia, and now based in London, Jesse directed films for both theatrical release, as well as films and documentary series for major platforms including Netflix, Amazon Studios, ESPN Films, Discovery+, and Nat Geo.

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His 2012 debut feature documentary film, ‘Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet', told the story of American musician Jason Becker and his battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Screening at multiple film festivals across the globe, it received numerous awards including the Special Jury Prize at the Hamptons International Film Festival. It also earned Jesse a nomination for Best Newcomer at the Grierson Awards and a New York Times Critic’s Pick. 
 

His follow-up film ‘The Prince of Pennsylvania’, released as part of ESPN Films’ 30 for 30 documentary series, told the bizarre story of John du Pont and his Foxcatcher wrestling team. It premiered at the Philadelphia Film Festival and the Hot Springs Film Festival, where it was nominated for Best Sports Documentary, before launching on ESPN. The 30 for 30 series went on to win an Emmy for Outstanding Short-Format Nonfiction.
 

Since then, Jesse has directed the Netflix Original documentary series ‘Captive’ (2016), the feature documentary ‘Gypsy’s Revenge’ for ID Films (2017), ‘This is Football’ for Amazon Studios (2018), and the Netflix Original documentary series ‘The Ripper’ (2019), which became the #1 series on the platform following its release.

 

His four-part series ‘Curse of the Chippendales’, premiered at the 65th London Film Festival in 2021 and was nominated for a Broadcast Award for best documentary series. It was released on Discovery+ in the US and Amazon Prime in the U.K.

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Jesse's latest project is the three-part series, The Great Rhino Robbery, which was recently released on Sky. 

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Jesse is currently working on a Netflix series for Lightbox.