Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2968
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Bill Fagerbakke represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 29 years in, and Bill is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Bill Fagerbakke appears in 14 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Bill. The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage! is the clearest case: a film rated 7.8 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, comedy. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for comedy, fantasy, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Derek Drymon, Dave Cunningham, Tim Hill and others, Bill Fagerbakke 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 SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage! (2019) as Animated Patrick (voice) · The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run (2020) as Patrick Star (voice) · The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) as Oafish Guard (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #2968 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
14
1996–2025
Career length
29 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.8
The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.8
The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!
Most frequent director
Dave Cunningham
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Dave Cunningham
Most common genre
Comedy
11 titles
Average runtime
1h 20m
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
7.2 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. The Hunchback of Notre Dame — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.2
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
7.1
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. The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Most productive era
2020s
6 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 | 7.21 film | — | 6.01 film | — |
| Action | — | 6.31 film | — | — |
| Comedy | — | 6.73 films | 6.63 films | 7.05 films |
| Horror | — | 6.01 film | — | 7.01 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1996The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Oafish Guard (voice).
Highest rated performance
2019The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!
7.8 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2020The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
The current state of the argument, as Patrick / Troop (voice).
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.
14 of 14 films
as Patrick Star (voice)
Directed by Tim Hill
as Animated Patrick (voice)
Directed by Glenn Weiss
as Patrick / Pat-Tron
Directed by Dave Cunningham
as Patrick / Anchovy #2 / Roh / Sea Urchins / Anchovies (voice)
Directed by Dave Cunningham
as Patrick Star / Fish #2 / Chum Customer / Local Fish (voice)
Directed by Stephen Hillenburg
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
Patrick Star (voice)
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run (2020)
Performance score7.7
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Patrick Star (voice) gives Bill Fagerbakke a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Animated Patrick (voice)
The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage! (2019)
Performance score7.6
The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage! asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Animated Patrick (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Patrick / Pat-Tron
The Tidal Zone: SpongeBob Universe Special (2023)
Performance score7.5
The Tidal Zone: SpongeBob Universe Special asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Patrick / Pat-Tron is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Patrick / Anchovy #2 / Roh / Sea Urchins / Anchovies (voice)
SpongeBob Squarepants: Kreepaway Kamp (2024)
Performance score7.4
SpongeBob Squarepants: Kreepaway Kamp asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Patrick / Anchovy #2 / Roh / Sea Urchins / Anchovies (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 Patrick Star (voice)
Start here. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run is the clearest statement of what Bill Fagerbakke does — accessible, 95 minutes, and rated 7.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Bill 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 SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004)
Keeps the comedy register of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run but asks for a colder reading of it.
The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage! (2019)
Keeps the comedy register of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Tidal Zone: SpongeBob Universe Special (2023)
Keeps the comedy register of The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage! but asks for a colder reading of it.
SpongeBob Squarepants: Kreepaway Kamp (2024)
Same director as The Tidal Zone: SpongeBob Universe Special, 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.
Dave Cunningham
Director
3 films together
Notably The Tidal Zone: SpongeBob Universe Special
Kirk Wise
Director
1 film together
Notably The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Toby Shelton
Director
1 film together
Notably Atlantis: Milo's Return
Stephen Hillenburg
Director
1 film together
Notably The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
Pete Michels
Director
1 film together
Notably Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story
Karyn Kusama
Director
1 film together
Notably Jennifer's Body
Mike Mitchell
Director
1 film together
Notably The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
Lorene Scafaria
Director
1 film together
Notably The Meddler
Glenn Weiss
Director
1 film together
Notably The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!
Tim Hill
Director
1 film together
Notably The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run
Derek Drymon
Director
1 film together
Notably The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Dave Cunningham
Director
3 films together · 4.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Tidal Zone: SpongeBob Universe SpecialGlenn Weiss
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!Tim Hill
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the RunKirk Wise
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Hunchback of Notre DameStephen Hillenburg
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 SpongeBob SquarePants MoviePete Michels
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Stewie Griffin: The Untold StoryDerek Drymon
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePantsToby Shelton
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Atlantis: Milo's ReturnMike Mitchell
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of WaterLorene Scafaria
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 MeddlerKaryn Kusama
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jennifer's BodySix 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 SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!
as Animated Patrick (voice)
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 Hunchback of Notre Dame
as Oafish Guard (voice)
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 SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!
as Animated Patrick (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story
as Indian (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run
as Patrick Star (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. Bill Fagerbakke 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
29 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
11 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 SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run
as Patrick Star (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!
as Animated Patrick (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
as Oafish Guard (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run
as Patrick Star (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!
as Animated Patrick (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Atlantis: Milo's Return
as Sven (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run
as Patrick Star (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
as Oafish Guard (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Elliot Page
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Catherine Lagaʻaia
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and family
Have your say
Community
Which Bill Fagerbakke performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
Join the conversation
Reference
Continue exploring
Trending performers
Directors they work with
Collections to read next
