Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#387
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Aidan Gillen works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Aidan Gillen appears in 22 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Aidan. Bohemian Rhapsody is the clearest case: a film rated 8.1 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for thriller, action, crime. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Sam Esmail, Łukasz Palkowski, Philipp Stölzl and others, Aidan Gillen helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) as John Reid · The Dark Knight Rises (2012) as CIA Op · Sing Street (2016) as Robert Lawlor
Career snapshot
Ranked #387 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
22
2003–2027
Career length
24 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.1
Bohemian Rhapsody
Average Nutevio score
5.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
Bohemian Rhapsody
Most frequent director
James Marsh
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With James Marsh
Most common genre
Drama
12 titles
Average runtime
1h 45m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.8
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.3
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
2010s
6.9 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Bohemian Rhapsody, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.9
Across 10 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.9
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2000s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. 12 Rounds, Shanghai Knights.
Most productive era
2010s
10 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 7.26 films | 4.36 films |
| Action | 5.91 film | 6.95 films | 6.53 films |
| Thriller | 5.91 film | 6.66 films | 4.84 films |
| Comedy | 6.11 film | 7.71 film | 3.32 films |
| Crime | 5.91 film | 7.12 films | 6.52 films |
| Romance | — | 7.71 film | — |
| Horror | — | 5.61 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2003Shanghai Knights
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Lord Nelson Rathbone.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
8.1 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2027Panic Carefully
The current state of the argument.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
22 of 22 films
as CIA Op
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Robert Lawlor
Directed by John Carney
as Vasily Zarubin
Directed by Łukasz Palkowski
as James Joyce
Directed by James Marsh
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
John Reid
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
Performance score8.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. John Reid gives Aidan Gillen a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
CIA Op
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Performance score7.8
The Dark Knight Rises asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. CIA Op is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Robert Lawlor
Sing Street (2016)
Performance score7.5
Sing Street asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Robert Lawlor is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Vasily Zarubin
Gorky Resort (2026)
Performance score7.4
Gorky Resort asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Vasily Zarubin is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as John Reid
Start here. Bohemian Rhapsody is the clearest statement of what Aidan Gillen does — accessible, 135 minutes, and rated 8.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Aidan at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Keeps the drama register of Bohemian Rhapsody but asks for a colder reading of it.
Sing Street (2016)
Keeps the drama register of The Dark Knight Rises but asks for a colder reading of it.
Dance First (2023)
Keeps the drama register of Sing Street but asks for a colder reading of it.
Gorky Resort (2026)
Keeps the history register of Dance First but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Wes Ball
Director
2 films together
Notably Maze Runner: The Death Cure
James Marsh
Director
2 films together
Notably Dance First
David Dobkin
Director
1 film together
Notably Shanghai Knights
Renny Harlin
Director
1 film together
Notably 12 Rounds
Elliott Lester
Director
1 film together
Notably Blitz
Christopher Nolan
Director
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight Rises
John Carney
Director
1 film together
Notably Sing Street
Guy Ritchie
Director
1 film together
Notably King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
Bryan Singer
Director
1 film together
Notably Bohemian Rhapsody
Taylor Sheridan
Director
1 film together
Notably Those Who Wish Me Dead
Philipp Stölzl
Director
1 film together
Notably The Physician II
Łukasz Palkowski
Director
1 film together
Notably Gorky Resort
Sam Esmail
Director
1 film together
Notably Panic Carefully
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Wes Ball
Director
2 films together · 6.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Maze Runner: The Death CureJames Marsh
Director
2 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Dance FirstBryan Singer
Director
1 film together · 8.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bohemian RhapsodyChristopher Nolan
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Dark Knight RisesJohn Carney
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sing StreetŁukasz Palkowski
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gorky ResortTaylor Sheridan
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Those Who Wish Me DeadGuy Ritchie
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
King Arthur: Legend of the SwordPhilipp Stölzl
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Physician IIElliott Lester
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BlitzDavid Dobkin
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Shanghai KnightsRenny Harlin
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
12 RoundsSam Esmail
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Panic CarefullySix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Bohemian Rhapsody
as John Reid
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Bohemian Rhapsody
as John Reid
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Bohemian Rhapsody
as John Reid
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Dark Knight Rises
as CIA Op
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Bohemian Rhapsody
as John Reid
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Aidan Gillen has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
24 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
12 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Bohemian Rhapsody
as John Reid
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Dark Knight Rises
as CIA Op
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Dance First
as James Joyce
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Physician II
as Hunne
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Dark Knight Rises
as CIA Op
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Maze Runner: The Death Cure
as Janson
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Sing Street
as Robert Lawlor
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Dark Knight Rises
as CIA Op
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Michael Caine
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
David Krumholtz
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Cillian Murphy
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Morgan Freeman
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Robert Downey Jr.
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Have your say
Community
Which Aidan Gillen performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
Join the conversation
Reference
Continue exploring
Trending performers
Directors they work with
Collections to read next
