Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#7670
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Armando Riesco 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.
Armando Riesco appears in 16 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Armando. 25th Hour is the clearest case: a film rated 7.3 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, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Jillian Bell, Craig Gillespie, Marielle Heller and others, Armando Riesco 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.
25th Hour (2002) as Phelan · Garden State (2004) as Jesse · Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018) as Male (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #7670 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
16
2002–2025
Career length
23 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.3
25th Hour
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.3
25th Hour
Most frequent director
Jon Turteltaub
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Jon Turteltaub
Most common genre
Drama
12 titles
Average runtime
1h 54m
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
6.4
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
6.6 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Che: Part Two, Che: Part One, National Treasure: Book of Secrets — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.6
Across 10 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.6
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. Che: Part Two, Che: Part One, National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
Most productive era
2000s
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 | 6.77 films | 6.52 films | 5.73 films |
| Action | 6.53 films | — | — |
| Thriller | 6.32 films | 6.31 film | 4.01 film |
| Comedy | 6.63 films | 6.42 films | 6.62 films |
| Crime | 6.82 films | 6.52 films | — |
| Romance | 6.72 films | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance · Career peak
200225th Hour
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Phelan. 7.3 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
2025Grassland
The current state of the argument, as Police Chief Marcus Sullivan.
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.
16 of 16 films
as Jesse
Directed by Zach Braff
as Male (voice)
Directed by Marielle Heller
as Benigno (Dariel Alarcón Ramírez)
Directed by Unknown
as Additional Voices (voice)
Directed by Craig Gillespie
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
Jesse
Garden State (2004)
Performance score7.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Jesse gives Armando Riesco a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Phelan
25th Hour (2002)
Performance score7.2
25th Hour asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Phelan is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Male (voice)
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)
Performance score6.7
Can You Ever Forgive Me? asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Male (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Benigno (Dariel Alarcón Ramírez)
Che: Part One (2008)
Performance score6.7
Che: Part One asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Benigno (Dariel Alarcón Ramírez) 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 Jesse
Start here. Garden State is the clearest statement of what Armando Riesco does — accessible, 102 minutes, and rated 7.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Armando 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.
25th Hour (2002)
Keeps the drama register of Garden State but asks for a colder reading of it.
Che: Part One (2008)
Keeps the drama register of 25th Hour but asks for a colder reading of it.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)
Keeps the drama register of Che: Part One but asks for a colder reading of it.
Dumb Money (2023)
Keeps the comedy register of Can You Ever Forgive Me? but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Jon Turteltaub
Director
2 films together
Notably National Treasure
Spike Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably 25th Hour
Peter Hedges
Director
1 film together
Notably Pieces of April
Zach Braff
Director
1 film together
Notably Garden State
Bobby Farrelly
Director
1 film together
Notably Fever Pitch
David Ayer
Director
1 film together
Notably Harsh Times
Oliver Stone
Director
1 film together
Notably World Trade Center
Antoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together
Notably Brooklyn's Finest
Scott Coffey
Director
1 film together
Notably Adult World
Marielle Heller
Director
1 film together
Notably Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Craig Gillespie
Director
1 film together
Notably Dumb Money
Jillian Bell
Director
1 film together
Notably Summer of 69
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Jon Turteltaub
Director
2 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
National TreasureSpike Lee
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
25th HourZach Braff
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Garden StateMarielle Heller
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Can You Ever Forgive Me?Craig Gillespie
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dumb MoneyPeter Hedges
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Pieces of AprilJillian Bell
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Summer of 69David Ayer
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Harsh TimesAntoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Brooklyn's FinestOliver Stone
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
World Trade CenterBobby Farrelly
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fever PitchScott Coffey
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Adult WorldSix 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
25th Hour
as Phelan
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
World Trade Center
as Antonio Rodrigues
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
25th Hour
as Phelan
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Dumb Money
as Additional Voices (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Garden State
as Jesse
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. Armando Riesco 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
23 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
25th Hour
as Phelan
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
National Treasure
as Agent Hendricks
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
World Trade Center
as Antonio Rodrigues
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
as FBI Agent Hendricks
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
National Treasure
as Agent Hendricks
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
as FBI Agent Hendricks
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Dumb Money
as Additional Voices (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
World Trade Center
as Antonio Rodrigues
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
David Krumholtz
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Robert Downey Jr.
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
Which Armando Riesco performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
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Reference
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