10 Movies and TV Shows with Autistic Characters

By: Kate Swenson of Finding Cooper's Voice

Movies and TV shows that bring awareness and representation of autism are important to the community. Here are 10 great options to view.

Open Hands

1.

What's eating gilbert grape?

Gilbert Grape lives in a small town where nothing much happens. The town’s most interesting resident is Gilbert’s autistic brother Arnie.

1993

2.

A car dealer returns to his boyhood home soon after learning about his father’s death. His father left a large sum of money to his autistic brother, Raymond. 

2020

rain man

3.

Life, Animated

“The Little Mermaid,” “The Lion King” and other animated Disney movies help a young autistic man to develop reading, writing and communication skills.

2016

4.

Love on the spectrum

Searching for a perfect match, seven new and returning young adults on the autism spectrum plunge into the bewildering world of dating.

2020

5.

The boy who could fly

A teenager with autism is sent to live with his uncle after his parents die in an airplane crash. 

1986

6.

This searing family drama centers on a widower as he cares for his increasingly taciturn son Patrick, an autistic boy who deals with bullying at school by retreating into his own private fantasy world.

2016

a boy called po

7.

I AM SAM 

The story of an autistic man living independently and functioning well in the real world until his life changes drastically when he becomes a father and is left to care for his small child.

2001

8.

AS WE SEE IT

Finding love, making friends, getting a job, adulting. Watch as three roommates on the autism spectrum navigate their early 20s with all its joy, tears and laughter.

2022

9.

THE ACCOUNTANT

As a math savant uncooks the books for a new client, the Treasury Department closes in on his activities, and the body count starts to rise. 

2016

10.

The Hughes family work and love and fight like every other family. Then, their youngest son is diagnosed with autism and they don’t feel like every other family anymore.

2016

THE A WORD