Such a huge amount of TV, and especially Movies, are geared towards a neurotypical audience.
As an autistic kid growing up, the only actor I ever cared about was Brent Spiner (Data, from Star Trek). I never watched the original series as a kid, but after watching it as an adult, Data was obviously carrying on a role started by Spock, another all-time great. Maybe they both count as rare role models for ASD folks?
My favorite movie is this non-movie called Gizmo! (1977). (It’s free on youtube among other places.) It’s mostly a collection of old black and white footage of weird inventions. It definitely has neurotypical folks in mind as part of the audience, giving them lots of weird things to laugh at, but I could watch or scroll through info about random unique contraptions for days.
I can’t think of any off the top of my head that are specifically about neurodiversity. It’s hard to find representation at all, let alone good representation. Most is inaccurate to the point of being harmful.
One movie I quite like is Thelma, a Norwegian spookythriller from 2017. Sort of like Carrie if you’re familiar with that book (and subsequent movie).
Thelma was great! I loved the atmosphere and trying to figure out the character’s emotions throughout the movie.
