Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#10452
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Clem Cheung 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.
Clem Cheung appears in 12 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Clem. Over the Moon is the clearest case: a film rated 7.2 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, romance. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Shari Albert, Scott Cooper, Bing Liu and others, Clem Cheung 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.
Over the Moon (2020) as Grandpa (voice) · The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) as Chinese Grandpa · Michael Clayton (2007) as Landlord (uncredited)
Career snapshot
Ranked #10452 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
12
2006–2025
Career length
19 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.2
Over the Moon
Average Nutevio score
5.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.2
Over the Moon
Most frequent director
Shari Albert
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Shari Albert
Most common genre
Comedy
6 titles
Average runtime
1h 35m
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
2010s
6.3 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Baywatch, The Night Before, The Audition — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.3
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
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. What Happens in Vegas, Michael Clayton, My Super Ex-Girlfriend.
Most productive era
2010s
5 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 | — | 6.32 films |
| Action | — | 6.33 films | — |
| Thriller | 6.81 film | — | — |
| Comedy | 5.72 films | 6.14 films | — |
| Crime | 6.81 film | 6.11 film | — |
| Romance | 5.72 films | — | 5.91 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Asian Businessman.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2020Over the Moon
7.2 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
2025Preparation for the Next Life
The current state of the argument, as Kitchen Boss.
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.
12 of 12 films
as Grandpa (voice)
Directed by Unknown
as Chinese Grandpa
Directed by Marc Webb
as Landlord (uncredited)
Directed by Tony Gilroy
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
Grandpa (voice)
Over the Moon (2020)
Performance score7.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Grandpa (voice) gives Clem Cheung a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Chinese Grandpa
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
Performance score6.7
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Chinese Grandpa is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Landlord (uncredited)
Michael Clayton (2007)
Performance score6.7
Michael Clayton asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Landlord (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Bartender
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
Performance score6.6
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bartender 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 Grandpa (voice)
Start here. Over the Moon is the clearest statement of what Clem Cheung does — accessible, 95 minutes, and rated 7.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Clem 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.
Michael Clayton (2007)
A deliberate change of key after Over the Moon — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
A deliberate change of key after Michael Clayton — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
A deliberate change of key after The Amazing Spider-Man 2 — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Double Happiness (2025)
A deliberate change of key after Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Ivan Reitman
Director
1 film together
Notably My Super Ex-Girlfriend
Tony Gilroy
Director
1 film together
Notably Michael Clayton
Tom Vaughan
Director
1 film together
Notably What Happens in Vegas
Brett Ratner
Director
1 film together
Notably Tower Heist
Marc Webb
Director
1 film together
Notably The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Martin Scorsese
Director
1 film together
Notably The Audition
Jonathan Levine
Director
1 film together
Notably The Night Before
Seth Gordon
Director
1 film together
Notably Baywatch
Bing Liu
Director
1 film together
Notably Preparation for the Next Life
Scott Cooper
Director
1 film together
Notably Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
Shari Albert
Director
1 film together
Notably Double Happiness
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Marc Webb
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 Amazing Spider-Man 2Tony Gilroy
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Michael ClaytonScott Cooper
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Springsteen: Deliver Me from NowhereMartin Scorsese
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 AuditionSeth Gordon
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BaywatchJonathan Levine
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 Night BeforeBrett Ratner
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Tower HeistTom 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 VegasBing Liu
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Preparation for the Next LifeIvan Reitman
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
My Super Ex-GirlfriendShari Albert
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Double HappinessSix 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
Over the Moon
as Grandpa (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
Over the Moon
as Grandpa (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
Over the Moon
as Grandpa (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Michael Clayton
as Landlord (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Over the Moon
as Grandpa (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. Clem Cheung 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
6 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
Over the Moon
as Grandpa (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Michael Clayton
as Landlord (uncredited)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
as Bartender
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Over the Moon
as Grandpa (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
as Chinese Grandpa
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
as Chinese Grandpa
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Over the Moon
as Grandpa (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
as Chinese Grandpa
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
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Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Leonardo DiCaprio
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Robert De Niro
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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