Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#4042
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Amandla Stenberg 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.
Amandla Stenberg appears in 14 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Amandla. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is the clearest case: a film rated 8.5 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 action, science fiction, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Bob Persichetti, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Travis Knight and others, Amandla Stenberg 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.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) as Margo Kess: Spider-Byte (voice) · The Hate U Give (2018) as Starr Carter · Where Hands Touch (2018) as Leyna
Career snapshot
Ranked #4042 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
14
2011–2027
Career length
16 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.5
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Average Nutevio score
5.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.3
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Most frequent director
Bob Persichetti
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Bob Persichetti
Most common genre
Adventure
8 titles
Average runtime
1h 30m
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
7.0 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. This Changes Everything, Where Hands Touch, The Hate U Give — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
7.0
Across 7 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
7.1
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2010s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. This Changes Everything, Where Hands Touch, The Hate U Give.
Most productive era
2010s
7 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 | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.24 films | 6.21 film |
| Action | 6.93 films | 4.32 films |
| Thriller | 6.92 films | — |
| Comedy | 6.51 film | 6.21 film |
| Crime | 7.22 films | — |
| Romance | 7.41 film | — |
| Horror | — | 6.21 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2011Colombiana
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Cataleya Restrepo (Age10).
Career peak
2018The Hate U Give
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Highest rated performance
2023Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
8.5 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Most recent film
2027Children of Blood and Bone
The current state of the argument, as Princess Amari.
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.
14 of 14 films
as Starr Carter
Directed by George Tillman Jr.
as Margo Kess: Spider-Byte (voice)
Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos
as Ruby Daly
Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson
as Rue
Directed by Gary Ross
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
Starr Carter
The Hate U Give (2018)
Performance score8.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Starr Carter gives Amandla Stenberg a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Margo Kess: Spider-Byte (voice)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
Performance score8.2
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Margo Kess: Spider-Byte (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Leyna
Where Hands Touch (2018)
Performance score8.0
Where Hands Touch asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Leyna is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Ruby Daly
The Darkest Minds (2018)
Performance score7.6
The Darkest Minds asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ruby Daly 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 Starr Carter
Start here. The Hate U Give is the clearest statement of what Amandla Stenberg does — accessible, 133 minutes, and rated 7.8 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Amandla 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 Hunger Games (2012)
A deliberate change of key after The Hate U Give — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Where Hands Touch (2018)
A deliberate change of key after The Hunger Games — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Darkest Minds (2018)
Keeps the drama register of Where Hands Touch but asks for a colder reading of it.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
Keeps the action register of The Darkest Minds but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Gary Ross
Director
1 film together
Notably The Hunger Games
Carlos Saldanha
Director
1 film together
Notably Rio 2
Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Director
1 film together
Notably The Darkest Minds
George Tillman Jr.
Director
1 film together
Notably The Hate U Give
Amma Asante
Director
1 film together
Notably Where Hands Touch
Stephen Chbosky
Director
1 film together
Notably Dear Evan Hansen
Halina Reijn
Director
1 film together
Notably Bodies Bodies Bodies
Joaquim Dos Santos
Director
1 film together
Notably Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Travis Knight
Director
1 film together
Notably Wildwood
Gina Prince-Bythewood
Director
1 film together
Notably Children of Blood and Bone
Bob Persichetti
Director
1 film together
Notably Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Joaquim Dos Santos
Director
1 film together · 8.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-VerseGeorge Tillman Jr.
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Hate U GiveAmma Asante
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Where Hands TouchGary Ross
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Hunger GamesJennifer Yuh Nelson
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Darkest MindsCarlos Saldanha
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rio 2Halina Reijn
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bodies Bodies BodiesStephen Chbosky
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dear Evan HansenBob Persichetti
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-VerseGina Prince-Bythewood
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Children of Blood and BoneTravis Knight
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
WildwoodSix 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
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
as Margo Kess: Spider-Byte (voice)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Where Hands Touch
as Leyna
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
as Margo Kess: Spider-Byte (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
This Changes Everything
as Self
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Hate U Give
as Starr Carter
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. Amandla Stenberg 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.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Adventure Legend
Awarded
8 catalogue titles in adventure, 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
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
as Margo Kess: Spider-Byte (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
as Margo Kess: Spider-Byte (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Wildwood
as (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Bodies Bodies Bodies
as Sophie
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
as Margo Kess: Spider-Byte (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
as Margo Kess: Spider-Byte (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Hate U Give
as Starr Carter
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
as Margo Kess: Spider-Byte (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Have your say
Community
Which Amandla Stenberg 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
