He has collaborated on several films with his brother, Director Christopher Nolan, who adapted Jonathan's short story "Memento Mori" into the neo-noir thriller film Memento (2000). Together, the siblings co-wrote the mystery thriller film The Prestige (2006), the superhero films The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and the science fiction film Interstellar (2014).
In 2005, Jonathan and Christopher co-wrote the screenplay for The Prestige, which is based on Christopher Priest's novel of the same title. The brothers collaborated on the screenplay for the 2008 film The Dark Knight. The film went on to become the most financially successful Batman film, which has since been surpassed by its sequel, The Dark Knight Rises.
On 10 February 2011, CBS picked up Nolan's pilot Person of Interest. The show was officially picked up by CBS on 13 May 2011 to air in fall 2011. The series ran for five seasons and starred Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson. Nolan served as executive Producer along with J. J. Abrams.
Nolan and Lisa Joy wrote a pilot for an adaptation of Westworld, Michael Crichton's 1973 science fiction Western thriller of the same name, after being approached by Producer Jerry Weintraub. On August 31, 2013, it was announced that HBO had ordered a pilot for a show, with Nolan, Joy, Weintraub, J. J. Abrams, and Bryan Burk as executive producers, and Nolan making his directorial debut. The pilot was subsequently picked up to series, with Nolan and Joy as co-showrunners, and premiered on October 2, 2016. In November 2016, HBO renewed the show for a 10-episode second season, to debut in early 2018.
In 2014, TheWrap reported that Nolan was writing and producing a series based on Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy for HBO.