Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1115
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Ashton Kutcher 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.
Ashton Kutcher appears in 21 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Ashton. The Happy Days of Garry Marshall is the clearest case: a film rated 8.0 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 crime, documentary, romance. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Aline Brosh McKenna, B.J. Novak, Ash Brannon and others, Ashton Kutcher 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 Happy Days of Garry Marshall (2020) as Self · The Guardian (2006) as Jake Fischer · A Lot Like Love (2005) as Oliver Martin
Career snapshot
Ranked #1115 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
21
2000–2024
Career length
24 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.0
The Happy Days of Garry Marshall
Average Nutevio score
5.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
The Happy Days of Garry Marshall
Most frequent director
Garry Marshall
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Garry Marshall
Most common genre
Comedy
15 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
6.3
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
2000s
6.2 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Spread, What Happens in Vegas, The Guardian — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.2
Across 10 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.2
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. Spread, What Happens in Vegas, The Guardian.
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 | 6.74 films | 6.22 films | — |
| Action | 6.42 films | 6.01 film | — |
| Thriller | 5.71 film | 6.01 film | 6.61 film |
| Comedy | 6.17 films | 6.15 films | 4.33 films |
| Crime | 5.71 film | — | 5.11 film |
| Romance | 6.15 films | 6.04 films | 6.31 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2000Reindeer Games
Where our catalogue meets this career, as College Kid.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2020The Happy Days of Garry Marshall
8.0 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
2024TMZ Presents: The Downfall of Diddy
The current state of the argument, as Self (archive footage).
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.
21 of 21 films
as Jake Fischer
Directed by Andrew Davis
as Oliver Martin
Directed by Nigel Cole
as Peter Coleman
Directed by Aline Brosh McKenna
as Quentin Sellers
Directed by B.J. Novak
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
Self
The Happy Days of Garry Marshall (2020)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Self gives Ashton Kutcher a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Jake Fischer
The Guardian (2006)
Performance score7.5
The Guardian asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jake Fischer is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Oliver Martin
A Lot Like Love (2005)
Performance score7.4
A Lot Like Love asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Oliver Martin is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Peter Coleman
Your Place or Mine (2023)
Performance score6.8
Your Place or Mine asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Peter Coleman 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 Self
Start here. The Happy Days of Garry Marshall is the clearest statement of what Ashton Kutcher does — accessible, 84 minutes, and rated 8.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Ashton 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.
A Lot Like Love (2005)
A deliberate change of key after The Happy Days of Garry Marshall — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Guardian (2006)
Keeps the drama register of A Lot Like Love but asks for a colder reading of it.
Vengeance (2022)
A deliberate change of key after The Guardian — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Your Place or Mine (2023)
Keeps the comedy register of Vengeance but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Shawn Levy
Director
2 films together
Notably Cheaper by the Dozen
Garry Marshall
Director
2 films together
Notably New Year's Eve
John Frankenheimer
Director
1 film together
Notably Reindeer Games
Nigel Cole
Director
1 film together
Notably A Lot Like Love
Kevin Rodney Sullivan
Director
1 film together
Notably Guess Who
Emilio Estevez
Director
1 film together
Notably Bobby
Roger Allers
Director
1 film together
Notably Open Season
Andrew Davis
Director
1 film together
Notably The Guardian
Tom Vaughan
Director
1 film together
Notably What Happens in Vegas
David Mackenzie
Director
1 film together
Notably Spread
Robert Luketic
Director
1 film together
Notably Killers
Ivan Reitman
Director
1 film together
Notably No Strings Attached
Will Gluck
Director
1 film together
Notably Annie
Ash Brannon
Director
1 film together
Notably Stoner Cats
B.J. Novak
Director
1 film together
Notably Vengeance
Aline Brosh McKenna
Director
1 film together
Notably Your Place or Mine
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Shawn Levy
Director
2 films together · 6.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Cheaper by the DozenGarry Marshall
Director
2 films together · 5.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
New Year's EveAndrew Davis
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The GuardianNigel Cole
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Lot Like LoveB.J. Novak
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
VengeanceEmilio Estevez
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BobbyAline Brosh McKenna
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Your Place or MineIvan Reitman
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
No Strings AttachedWill Gluck
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AnnieRoger Allers
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Open SeasonTom Vaughan
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
What Happens in VegasRobert Luketic
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
KillersKevin Rodney Sullivan
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Guess WhoJohn Frankenheimer
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Reindeer GamesDavid Mackenzie
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SpreadAsh Brannon
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Stoner CatsSix 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 Happy Days of Garry Marshall
as Self
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
A Lot Like Love
as Oliver Martin
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 Happy Days of Garry Marshall
as Self
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Cheaper by the Dozen
as Hank (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Happy Days of Garry Marshall
as Self
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. Ashton Kutcher 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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
15 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 Happy Days of Garry Marshall
as Self
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Vengeance
as Quentin Sellers
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
A Lot Like Love
as Oliver Martin
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Vengeance
as Quentin Sellers
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Guardian
as Jake Fischer
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Guardian
as Jake Fischer
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
A Lot Like Love
as Oliver Martin
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Your Place or Mine
as Peter Coleman
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
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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