Orly Orlyson is an Icelandic filmmaker, storyteller and hospitality professional.

He is the founder and director of The Exploration Museum in Húsavík, as well as the owner of the Húsavík Cape Hotel. His other businesses include the Jaja Ding Dong café and pizzeria, the Laundry Company, the Eurovision Song Contest Exhibition and Iceland GeoSpace.

Orly served as chairman of the Húsavík Chamber of Commerce and Tourism from 2011 to 2016 and as president of the Húsavík Town council from from 2017 to 2019.

Orly directed the 2019 documentary Cosmic Birth, interviewing the Apollo astronauts and their families. He was the producer of the performance of the song “Húsavík my hometown” at the 93rd Academy Awards in 2021.

Since 2015, Orly has hosted the annual Explorers Festival and the Leif Erikson Awards in Húsavík. He is an international member of the Explorers Club in New York and a founding member of Space Iceland. He does public speaking on the Apollo program and various exploration related topics.

In 2018 he was awarded by the JCI as one of Ten Outstanding Young Persons in Iceland. The same year he was selected by the United States Department of State and the German Marshall Fund to represent Iceland in the YTILI program.

Orly’s work has been featured on ABC’s Good Morning America, on BBC World News and BBC Radio 4, as well as in the Guardian, National Geographic, New York Times and Washington Post.

Last updated in July 2022