Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#5398
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Celia Imrie represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 48 years in, and Celia is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Celia Imrie appears in 33 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Celia. Imagine Me & You is the clearest case: a film rated 7.6 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, mystery, crime. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Chris Columbus, Michael Morris, Dan Levy and others, Celia Imrie 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.
Imagine Me & You (2006) as Tessa · Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) as Vice Chancellor · The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012) as Madge Hardcastle
Career snapshot
Ranked #5398 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
33
1978–2026
Career length
48 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.6
Imagine Me & You
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.6
Imagine Me & You
Most frequent director
John Madden
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With John Madden
Most common genre
Comedy
25 titles
Average runtime
1h 42m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.9
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
6.7
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
1970s
7.0 average MV
The 1970s are where the work and the material meet. Death on the Nile — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1970s
7.0
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1970s
7.1
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1970s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Death on the Nile.
Most productive era
2010s
11 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 | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | — | 6.51 film | 6.93 films | 6.35 films | 6.44 films |
| Action | — | 6.91 film | 6.42 films | — | — | — |
| Comedy | — | — | 6.11 film | 6.48 films | 6.39 films | 5.37 films |
| Crime | — | — | — | — | — | 6.61 film |
| Romance | — | — | 6.51 film | 6.74 films | 6.34 films | 6.43 films |
| Horror | — | — | 6.51 film | — | 5.72 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Maid (uncredited).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2006Imagine Me & You
7.6 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
2026Merry Christmas Aubrey Flint
The current state of the argument, as Gloria Lynn.
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 Tessa
Directed by Unknown
as Mimi
Directed by Unknown
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
Tessa
Imagine Me & You (2006)
Performance score7.7
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Tessa gives Celia Imrie a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Vice Chancellor
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018)
Performance score7.0
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Vice Chancellor is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Mimi
Love Sarah (2020)
Performance score6.9
Love Sarah asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mimi is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Madge Hardcastle
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)
Performance score6.9
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Madge Hardcastle 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 Tessa
Start here. Imagine Me & You is the clearest statement of what Celia Imrie does — accessible, 93 minutes, and rated 7.6 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Celia 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.
Death on the Nile (1978)
A deliberate change of key after Imagine Me & You — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)
A deliberate change of key after Death on the Nile — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018)
Keeps the comedy register of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel but asks for a colder reading of it.
Love Sarah (2020)
Same director as Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, 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.
Oliver Parker
Director
2 films together
Notably St Trinian's
John Madden
Director
2 films together
Notably The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
John Guillermin
Director
1 film together
Notably Death on the Nile
Russell Mulcahy
Director
1 film together
Notably Highlander
Kenneth Branagh
Director
1 film together
Notably Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Peter Hewitt
Director
1 film together
Notably The Borrowers
George Lucas
Director
1 film together
Notably Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Nigel Cole
Director
1 film together
Notably Calendar Girls
Richard Loncraine
Director
1 film together
Notably Wimbledon
Kirk Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably Nanny McPhee
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
Andy Hamilton
Director
1 film together
Notably What We Did on Our Holiday
Mandie Fletcher
Director
1 film together
Notably Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie
Gore Verbinski
Director
1 film together
Notably A Cure for Wellness
Dan Levy
Director
1 film together
Notably Good Grief
Michael Morris
Director
1 film together
Notably Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
Chris Columbus
Director
1 film together
Notably The Thursday Murder Club
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
John Madden
Director
2 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Best Exotic Marigold HotelOliver Parker
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
St Trinian'sJohn Guillermin
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Death on the NileRussell Mulcahy
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HighlanderGeorge Lucas
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom MenaceAndy Hamilton
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
What We Did on Our HolidayKirk Jones
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Nanny McPheeChris Columbus
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Thursday Murder ClubNigel Cole
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Calendar GirlsKenneth Branagh
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mary Shelley's FrankensteinMichael Morris
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bridget Jones: Mad About the BoyGore Verbinski
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Cure for WellnessDan Levy
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Good GriefRichard Loncraine
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
WimbledonPeter Hewitt
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 BorrowersWoody Allen
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
You Will Meet a Tall Dark StrangerMandie Fletcher
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Absolutely Fabulous: The MovieSix 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
Imagine Me & You
as Tessa
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Mummies
as Mother June Carnaby (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
Imagine Me & You
as Tessa
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
as Fighter Pilot Bravo 5
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Imagine Me & You
as Tessa
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. Celia Imrie 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
48 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
25 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
Death on the Nile
as Maid (uncredited)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
A Cure for Wellness
as Victoria Watkins
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Mummies
as Mother June Carnaby (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Thursday Murder Club
as Joyce
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Highlander
as Kate MacLeod
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Highlander
as Kate MacLeod
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Love Punch
as Pen
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
as Fighter Pilot Bravo 5
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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