Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1232
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Ben Schwartz 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.
Ben Schwartz appears in 33 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Ben. Wicked: One Wonderful Night is the clearest case: a film rated 8.2 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 music, drama, action. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Sam Mendes, Jeff Fowler, BenDavid Grabinski and others, Ben Schwartz 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.
Wicked: One Wonderful Night (2025) as Self · Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024) as Sonic (voice) · A Parks and Recreation Special (2020) as Jean-Ralphio Sapperstein
Career snapshot
Ranked #1232 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
33
2009–2028
Career length
19 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.2
Wicked: One Wonderful Night
Average Nutevio score
5.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.2
Wicked: One Wonderful Night
Most frequent director
Sam Mendes
4 films together
Longest collaboration
4×
With Sam Mendes
Most common genre
Comedy
21 titles
Average runtime
1h 25m
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
6.2
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
6.4 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Everybody's Fine, Mystery Team — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.4
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.5
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. Everybody's Fine, Mystery Team.
Most productive era
2020s
19 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 | 6.81 film | 6.25 films | 1.96 films |
| Action | — | 6.34 films | 5.95 films |
| Thriller | 6.11 film | 5.61 film | — |
| Comedy | 6.11 film | 6.38 films | 6.412 films |
| Crime | 6.11 film | 5.61 film | 6.71 film |
| Horror | — | — | 6.41 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2009Everybody's Fine
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Writer.
Career peak
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Highest rated performance
2025Wicked: One Wonderful Night
8.2 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Most recent film
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.
33 of 33 films
as Sonic (voice)
Directed by Jeff Fowler
as Sonic (voice)
Directed by Jeff Fowler
as Leo / Janitor Man (voice)
Directed by Andy Suriano
as Sonic (voice)
Directed by Jeff Fowler
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
Sonic (voice)
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)
Performance score8.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Sonic (voice) gives Ben Schwartz a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Sonic (voice)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022)
Performance score8.0
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sonic (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Self
Wicked: One Wonderful Night (2025)
Performance score7.9
Wicked: One Wonderful Night 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
Leo / Janitor Man (voice)
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie (2022)
Performance score7.9
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Leo / Janitor Man (voice) 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 Sonic (voice)
Start here. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is the clearest statement of what Ben Schwartz does — accessible, 110 minutes, and rated 7.6 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Ben 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.
Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Same director as Sonic the Hedgehog 3, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022)
Same director as Sonic the Hedgehog, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie (2022)
Keeps the action register of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 but asks for a colder reading of it.
Wicked: One Wonderful Night (2025)
A deliberate change of key after Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Jeff Fowler
Director
4 films together
Notably Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Sam Mendes
Director
4 films together
Notably The Beatles: Ringo
Dan Eckman
Director
1 film together
Notably Mystery Team
Kirk Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably Everybody's Fine
Adam McKay
Director
1 film together
Notably The Other Guys
Shawn Levy
Director
1 film together
Notably This Is Where I Leave You
Evan Goldberg
Director
1 film together
Notably The Interview
Michael Bay
Director
1 film together
Notably Transformers: Age of Extinction
Robert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together
Notably The Walk
Clea DuVall
Director
1 film together
Notably The Intervention
Ken Marino
Director
1 film together
Notably How to Be a Latin Lover
Malcolm D. Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably Night School
Mike Mitchell
Director
1 film together
Notably The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
Morgan Sackett
Director
1 film together
Notably A Parks and Recreation Special
Sia
Director
1 film together
Notably Music
Lena Khan
Director
1 film together
Notably Flora & Ulysses
Andy Suriano
Director
1 film together
Notably Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie
Paul Dugdale
Director
1 film together
Notably Wicked: One Wonderful Night
BenDavid Grabinski
Director
1 film together
Notably Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Jeff Fowler
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
Sonic the Hedgehog 3Sam Mendes
Director
4 films together · 0.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Beatles: RingoPaul Dugdale
Director
1 film together · 8.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wicked: One Wonderful NightMorgan Sackett
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Parks and Recreation SpecialAndy Suriano
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The MovieRobert Zemeckis
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 WalkKen Marino
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
How to Be a Latin LoverKirk Jones
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Everybody's FineBenDavid Grabinski
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mike & Nick & Nick & AliceMike Mitchell
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Lego Movie 2: The Second PartShawn Levy
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
This Is Where I Leave YouLena Khan
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Flora & UlyssesAdam McKay
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Other GuysEvan Goldberg
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The InterviewMalcolm D. Lee
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Night SchoolDan Eckman
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mystery TeamMichael Bay
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Transformers: Age of ExtinctionClea DuVall
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The InterventionSia
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MusicSix 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
Wicked: One Wonderful Night
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
The Walk
as Albert
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Wicked: One Wonderful Night
as Self
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Transformers: Age of Extinction
as Bumblebee (voice) (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
as Sonic (voice)
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. Ben Schwartz 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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
21 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
Wicked: One Wonderful Night
as Self
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
as Sonic (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Walk
as Albert
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Mystery Team
as Dougie's Buddy
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
as Sonic (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
as Sonic (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
as Banarnar (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
DC League of Super-Pets
as Mark / Fire Guinea Pig (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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