Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#694
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Andy Serkis represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 27 years in, and Andy is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Andy Serkis appears in 32 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Andy. The Prestige is the clearest case: a film rated 9.0 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 mystery, crime, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Matt Reeves, Andy Serkis, Jon Erwin and others, Andy Serkis 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.
The Prestige (2006) as Alley · The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) as Gollum / Smeagol · The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) as Gollum
Career snapshot
Ranked #694 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
32
2001–2028
Career length
27 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.0
The Prestige
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.5
The Prestige
Most frequent director
Peter Jackson
5 films together
Longest collaboration
5×
With Peter Jackson
Most common genre
Adventure
17 titles
Average runtime
2h 3m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.1
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
7.2
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
2000s
7.5 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Inkheart, The Prestige, The Prestige — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.5
Across 10 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
7.4
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. Inkheart, The Prestige, The Prestige.
Most productive era
2010s
12 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 | 8.23 films | 7.16 films | 5.14 films |
| Action | 7.75 films | 7.47 films | 4.23 films |
| Thriller | 9.01 film | 7.32 films | 6.83 films |
| Comedy | 6.52 films | — | 6.52 films |
| Crime | — | — | 4.83 films |
| Romance | 6.81 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2001The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Gollum.
Career peak
2003The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance
2006The Prestige
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.0 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Most recent film
The current state of the argument, as Alfred.
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.
32 of 32 films
as Gollum / Smeagol
Directed by Peter Jackson
as Alley
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Gollum
Directed by Peter Jackson
as Gollum
Directed by Peter Jackson
as Alley
Directed by Christopher Nolan
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 38 titles · 44 total credits · active 2001–2028
The Batman: Part II
2028 · Alfred
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum
2027 · Gollum / Sméagol · Director · Executive Producer
Animal Farm
2026 · Mr. Jones / Rooster (voice) · Director · Producer
Robert Richardson: The White Devil
2026 · Self
Young Washington
2026 · General Edward Braddock
Venom: The Last Dance
2024 · Knull (voice)
Hitpig!
2024 · Newscaster (voice)
Brilliant Minds
2024 · TV · Executive Producer
Luther: The Fallen Sun
2023 · David Robey
Next Goal Wins
2023 · Executive Producer
The Batman
2022 · Alfred
The Legend of Vox Machina
2022 · TV · Gideon (voice)
The Bastard Son & the Devil Himself
2022 · TV · Executive Producer
SAS: Red Notice
2021 · George Clements
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
2021 · Director
No One Gets Out Alive
2021 · Executive Producer
FX's A Christmas Carol
2019 · Ghost of Christmas Past
Black Panther
2018 · Ulysses Klaue
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
2018 · Baloo (voice) · Director · Producer
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
2017 · Snoke
War for the Planet of the Apes
2017 · Caesar
Breathe
2017 · Director
Avengers: Age of Ultron
2015 · Ulysses Klaue
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
2015 · Supreme Leader Snoke
The defining work
#1
Gollum / Smeagol
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Performance score8.7
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Gollum / Smeagol gives Andy Serkis a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Alley
The Prestige (2006)
Performance score8.6
The Prestige asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Alley is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Gollum
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Performance score8.6
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Gollum is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Gollum
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Performance score8.4
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Gollum 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 Gollum / Smeagol
Start here. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the clearest statement of what Andy Serkis does — accessible, 201 minutes, and rated 8.8 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Andy 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 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Same director as The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Same director as The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
The Prestige (2006)
A deliberate change of key after The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Prestige (2006)
Same director as The Prestige, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Peter Jackson
Director
5 films together
Notably The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Matt Reeves
Director
4 films together
Notably The Batman
Andy Serkis
Director
3 films together
Notably Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together
Notably The Prestige
Geoffrey Sax
Director
1 film together
Notably Stormbreaker
Rupert Wyatt
Director
1 film together
Notably Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Dexter Fletcher
Director
1 film together
Notably Wild Bill
Steven Spielberg
Director
1 film together
Notably The Adventures of Tintin
J.J. Abrams
Director
1 film together
Notably Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Joss Whedon
Director
1 film together
Notably Avengers: Age of Ultron
Rian Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Ryan Coogler
Director
1 film together
Notably Black Panther
Nick Murphy
Director
1 film together
Notably FX's A Christmas Carol
Magnus Martens
Director
1 film together
Notably SAS: Red Notice
Jamie Payne
Director
1 film together
Notably Luther: The Fallen Sun
David Feiss
Director
1 film together
Notably Hitpig!
Kelly Marcel
Director
1 film together
Notably Venom: The Last Dance
Jon Erwin
Director
1 film together
Notably Young Washington
Michael Caine
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Prestige
Hugh Jackman
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Prestige
Christian Bale
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Prestige
Piper Perabo
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Prestige
Rebecca Hall
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Prestige
Scarlett Johansson
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Prestige
Samantha Mahurin
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Prestige
David Bowie
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Prestige
Daniel Davis
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Prestige
Jim Piddock
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Prestige
Christopher Neame
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Prestige
Mark Ryan
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Prestige
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Peter Jackson
Director
5 films together · 8.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 5 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the KingMatt Reeves
Director
4 films together · 5.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The BatmanAndy Serkis
Director
3 films together · 4.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Mowgli: Legend of the JungleChristopher Nolan
Director
2 films together · 8.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The PrestigeJon Erwin
Director
1 film together · 8.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Young WashingtonRyan Coogler
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Black PantherJoss Whedon
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Avengers: Age of UltronJ.J. Abrams
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Star Wars: The Force AwakensRupert Wyatt
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rise of the Planet of the ApesNick Murphy
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FX's A Christmas CarolRian Johnson
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Star Wars: The Last JediSteven Spielberg
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Adventures of TintinKelly Marcel
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Venom: The Last DanceDexter Fletcher
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wild BillDavid Feiss
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hitpig!Jamie Payne
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Luther: The Fallen SunMagnus Martens
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SAS: Red NoticeGeoffrey Sax
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
StormbreakerSix 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
The Prestige
as Alley
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
FX's A Christmas Carol
as Ghost of Christmas Past
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
The Prestige
as Alley
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Avengers: Age of Ultron
as Ulysses Klaue
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
as Gollum / Smeagol
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. Andy Serkis has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.1 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #297 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.0 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Drama, Mystery, Thriller | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Christopher Nolan | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Quiet performance, Screen presence, Rewatchability | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 2006–2006 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Alley — The Prestige | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | The Prestige | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Christopher Nolan
Shared collections
Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked, Top 100 Mind-Bending Movies, Thriller Movies, Drama Movies
Collaborators in common
Christopher Nolan · Michael Caine
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
27 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.
Adventure Legend
Awarded
17 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
The Prestige
as Alley
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Prestige
as Alley
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
FX's A Christmas Carol
as Ghost of Christmas Past
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Batman
as Alfred
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
as Gollum / Smeagol
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Black Panther
as Ulysses Klaue
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
War for the Planet of the Apes
as Caesar
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Prestige
as Alley
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Keep reading
theme
Movies With Incredible Endings
Features The Prestige at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Mystery Movies
Features The Prestige
Read the collectiondirector
Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked
Features The Prestige
Read the collectiontheme
Top 100 Mind-Bending Movies
Features The Prestige
Read the collectiongenre
Thriller Movies
Features The Prestige
Read the collectiongenre
Drama Movies
Features The Prestige
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
Essay
The evolution of Andy Serkis, read through movies with incredible endings
7 min read
Genre guide
Why The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King still sets the terms for mystery movies
7 min read
Essay
Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked: where Serkis fits
8 min read
Essay
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, explained
8 min read
If you like this performer
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Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
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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
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