Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#378
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Anthony Anderson represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 27 years in, and Anthony is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Anthony Anderson appears in 31 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Anthony. The Departed 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 comedy, drama, action. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Michael Tiddes, Chris Rock, Patricia Riggen and others, Anthony Anderson 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 Departed (2006) as Brown · The Departed (2006) as Brown · Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music and Laughter (2022) as Self
Career snapshot
Ranked #378 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
31
1999–2026
Career length
27 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.0
The Departed
Average Nutevio score
6.0
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.5
The Departed
Most frequent director
Andrzej Bartkowiak
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Andrzej Bartkowiak
Most common genre
Comedy
18 titles
Average runtime
1h 43m
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
6.5
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
1990s
6.7 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Life — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.7
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.7
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Life.
Most productive era
2000s
16 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 | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 7.54 films | 6.71 film | 3.12 films |
| Action | — | 6.25 films | — | 6.31 film |
| Thriller | — | 7.44 films | — | — |
| Comedy | 6.71 film | 6.08 films | 6.34 films | 4.95 films |
| Crime | 6.71 film | 6.87 films | — | — |
| Romance | — | — | — | 5.61 film |
| Horror | — | 4.91 film | 6.51 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1999Life
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Cookie.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2006The Departed
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. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2026Misty Green
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.
31 of 31 films
as Brown
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as Brown
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as Self
Directed by Unknown
Directed by Unknown
as Bones (voice)
Directed by Carlos Saldanha
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 51 titles · 56 total credits · active 1990–2026
Scary Movie
2026 · Anthony Anderson
Misty Green
2026 · Actor
After Hours with James Corden
2026 · TV · Self
Star Search
2026 · TV · Self - Host
G20
2025 · Derek Sutton
Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television
2025 · TV · Self
The Real Full Monty
2024 · Self - Host · Executive Producer
We Are Family
2024 · TV · Self - Host
Buy It Now
2024 · TV · Self
The GOAT
2024 · TV · Executive Producer
You People
2023 · Barber #1
Trippin' with Anthony Anderson and Mama Doris
2023 · TV · Self · Executive Producer
Kings of BBQ
2023 · TV · Self
Celebrity Prank Wars
2023 · TV · Self
Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music and Laughter
2022 · Self
Harry & Meghan
2022 · TV · Self
The Jennifer Hudson Show
2022 · TV · Self - Guest
Saving OurSelves: BET COVID-19 Relief Effort
2020 · Self - Co-Host
Beats
2019 · Romelo Reese
Live in Front of a Studio Audience: "All in the Family" and "Good Times"
2019 · Self - Performer
Dear Mama: A Love Letter to Mom
2019 · Actor
grown-ish
2018 · TV · Andre 'Dre' Johnson · Executive Producer
Ferdinand
2017 · Bones (voice)
black-ish
2014 · TV · Andre Johnson · Director · Executive Producer
The defining work
#1
Brown
The Departed (2006)
Performance score8.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Brown gives Anthony Anderson a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Brown
The Departed (2006)
Performance score8.1
The Departed asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Brown is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Self
Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music and Laughter (2022)
Performance score7.8
Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music and Laughter asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Dear Mama: A Love Letter to Mom
Dear Mama: A Love Letter to Mom (2019)
Performance score7.6
Dear Mama: A Love Letter to Mom asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. The role 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 Brown
Start here. The Departed is the clearest statement of what Anthony Anderson does — accessible, 151 minutes, and rated 9.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Anthony 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 Departed (2006)
Same director as The Departed, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Ferdinand (2017)
A deliberate change of key after The Departed — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Dear Mama: A Love Letter to Mom (2019)
A deliberate change of key after Ferdinand — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music and Laughter (2022)
Same director as Dear Mama: A Love Letter to Mom, 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.
Andrzej Bartkowiak
Director
3 films together
Notably Romeo Must Die
David Zucker
Director
2 films together
Notably Scary Movie 3
Martin Scorsese
Director
2 films together
Notably The Departed
Ted Demme
Director
1 film together
Notably Life
Bobby Farrelly
Director
1 film together
Notably Me, Myself & Irene
John Ottman
Director
1 film together
Notably Urban Legends: Final Cut
Tim Story
Director
1 film together
Notably Barbershop
Kevin Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London
Danny Leiner
Director
1 film together
Notably Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
Luc Besson
Director
1 film together
Notably Arthur and the Invisibles
Michael Bay
Director
1 film together
Notably Transformers
David Frankel
Director
1 film together
Notably The Big Year
Wes Craven
Director
1 film together
Notably Scream 4
Peter Segal
Director
1 film together
Notably Grudge Match
Carlos Saldanha
Director
1 film together
Notably Ferdinand
Andy Fisher
Director
1 film together
Notably Live in Front of a Studio Audience: "All in the Family" and "Good Times"
Chris Robinson
Director
1 film together
Notably Beats
Sam Wrench
Director
1 film together
Notably The Real Full Monty
Patricia Riggen
Director
1 film together
Notably G20
Chris Rock
Director
1 film together
Notably Misty Green
Michael Tiddes
Director
1 film together
Notably Scary Movie
Matt Damon
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Leonardo DiCaprio
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Jack Nicholson
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Mark Wahlberg
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Martin Sheen
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Ray Winstone
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Vera Farmiga
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Alec Baldwin
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Kevin Corrigan
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
James Badge Dale
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
David O'Hara
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Mark Rolston
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Andrzej Bartkowiak
Director
3 films together · 6.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Romeo Must DieMartin Scorsese
Director
2 films together · 8.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The DepartedDavid Zucker
Director
2 films together · 5.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Scary Movie 3Carlos Saldanha
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FerdinandMichael Bay
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TransformersMichael Tiddes
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scary MovieChris Robinson
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BeatsTed Demme
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LifeDanny Leiner
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Harold & Kumar Go to White CastleBobby Farrelly
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Me, Myself & IreneWes Craven
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scream 4Tim Story
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BarbershopLuc Besson
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Arthur and the InvisiblesPatricia Riggen
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
G20Andy Fisher
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Live in Front of a Studio Audience: "All in the Family" and "Good Times"Peter Segal
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Grudge MatchDavid Frankel
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Big YearKevin Allen
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination LondonJohn Ottman
Director
1 film together · 4.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Urban Legends: Final CutSam Wrench
Director
1 film together · 4.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Real Full MontyChris Rock
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Misty GreenSix 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 Departed
as Brown
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Beats
as Romelo Reese
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 Departed
as Brown
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Arthur and the Invisibles
as Koolomassai (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Departed
as Brown
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. Anthony Anderson 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 | 7.9 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #513 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 | Crime, Thriller, Drama | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Martin Scorsese | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Intensity, Quiet performance, Screen presence | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 2006–2006 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Brown — The Departed | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | The Departed | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
The Departed
Shared directors
Martin Scorsese
Shared collections
Top 100 Crime Movies, Thriller Movies, Crime Movies, Drama Movies
Collaborators in common
Martin Scorsese · Leonardo DiCaprio · Jack Nicholson · Mark Wahlberg
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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
18 catalogue titles in comedy, 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 Departed
as Brown
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Departed
as Brown
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Beats
as Romelo Reese
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Hoodwinked!
as Detective Bill Stork (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Departed
as Brown
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Transformers
as Glen Whitmann
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Ferdinand
as Bones (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Departed
as Brown
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.
Collection footprint
Appears in 4 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
From the magazine
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
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
Robert De Niro
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Leonardo DiCaprio
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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