Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1639
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Colm Meaney represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 36 years in, and Colm is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Colm Meaney appears in 32 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Colm. Remarkably Bright Creatures 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 mystery, drama, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Olivia Newman, Claudio Fäh, Neil Marshall and others, Colm Meaney 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.
Remarkably Bright Creatures (2026) as Ethan Mack · The Banker (2020) as Patrick Barker · Law Abiding Citizen (2009) as Detective Dunnigan
Career snapshot
Ranked #1639 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
32
1990–2026
Career length
36 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.0
Remarkably Bright Creatures
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.5
Remarkably Bright Creatures
Most frequent director
Olivia Newman
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Olivia Newman
Most common genre
Drama
15 titles
Average runtime
1h 44m
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
6.5
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
6.9 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Con Air, Far and Away, The Last of the Mohicans — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.9
Across 6 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.9
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. Con Air, Far and Away, The Last of the Mohicans.
Most productive era
2020s
13 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 | 7.03 films | 6.94 films | 5.93 films | 7.05 films |
| Action | 7.02 films | — | 5.12 films | 5.84 films |
| Thriller | 7.02 films | 7.22 films | 5.72 films | 6.25 films |
| Comedy | 6.62 films | 6.21 film | 5.53 films | 5.63 films |
| Crime | 6.62 films | 6.83 films | 6.61 film | 5.75 films |
| Romance | 6.71 film | — | 5.31 film | — |
| Horror | — | — | — | 6.02 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1990Die Hard 2
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Windsor Plane - Pilot.
Highest rated performance · Career peak · Most recent film
2026Remarkably Bright Creatures
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. The current state of the argument, as Ethan Mack.
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.
32 of 32 films
as Detective Dunnigan
Directed by F. Gary Gray
as Patrick Barker
Directed by George Nolfi
as Ray
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
Ethan Mack
Remarkably Bright Creatures (2026)
Performance score8.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Ethan Mack gives Colm Meaney a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Detective Dunnigan
Law Abiding Citizen (2009)
Performance score7.7
Law Abiding Citizen asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Detective Dunnigan is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Don Revie
The Damned United (2009)
Performance score7.6
The Damned United asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Don Revie is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Patrick Barker
The Banker (2020)
Performance score7.4
The Banker asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Patrick Barker 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 Ethan Mack
Start here. Remarkably Bright Creatures is the clearest statement of what Colm Meaney does — accessible, 114 minutes, and rated 8.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Colm 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.
Law Abiding Citizen (2009)
Keeps the drama register of Remarkably Bright Creatures but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Damned United (2009)
Keeps the drama register of Law Abiding Citizen but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Banker (2020)
Keeps the drama register of The Damned United but asks for a colder reading of it.
Bring Them Down (2025)
Keeps the drama register of The Banker but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Warren Beatty
Director
1 film together
Notably Dick Tracy
Renny Harlin
Director
1 film together
Notably Die Hard 2
Alan Parker
Director
1 film together
Notably The Commitments
Michael Mann
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last of the Mohicans
Ron Howard
Director
1 film together
Notably Far and Away
Simon West
Director
1 film together
Notably Con Air
John Crowley
Director
1 film together
Notably Intermission
Matthew Vaughn
Director
1 film together
Notably Layer Cake
Tom Hooper
Director
1 film together
Notably The Damned United
F. Gary Gray
Director
1 film together
Notably Law Abiding Citizen
Nicholas Stoller
Director
1 film together
Notably Get Him to the Greek
Robert Redford
Director
1 film together
Notably The Conspirator
Barnaby Thompson
Director
1 film together
Notably Pixie
George Nolfi
Director
1 film together
Notably The Banker
Jon Wright
Director
1 film together
Notably Unwelcome
Neil Jordan
Director
1 film together
Notably Marlowe
Robert Lorenz
Director
1 film together
Notably In the Land of Saints and Sinners
Neil Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably Duchess
Claudio Fäh
Director
1 film together
Notably No Way Up
Olivia Newman
Director
1 film together
Notably Remarkably Bright Creatures
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Olivia Newman
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Remarkably Bright CreaturesGeorge Nolfi
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The BankerF. Gary Gray
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Law Abiding CitizenMichael Mann
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 Last of the MohicansTom Hooper
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 Damned UnitedRenny Harlin
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Die Hard 2Alan Parker
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 CommitmentsMatthew Vaughn
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Layer CakeSimon West
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Con AirRon Howard
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Far and AwayRobert Redford
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 ConspiratorRobert Lorenz
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In the Land of Saints and SinnersClaudio Fäh
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
No Way UpJohn Crowley
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
IntermissionWarren Beatty
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dick TracyNicholas Stoller
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Get Him to the GreekJon Wright
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
UnwelcomeBarnaby Thompson
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PixieNeil Jordan
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MarloweNeil Marshall
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DuchessSix 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
Remarkably Bright Creatures
as Ethan Mack
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Far and Away
as Kelly
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Remarkably Bright Creatures
as Ethan Mack
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Dick Tracy
as Cop at Tess'
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Remarkably Bright Creatures
as Ethan Mack
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. Colm Meaney 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
36 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.
Drama Legend
Awarded
15 catalogue titles in drama, 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
Remarkably Bright Creatures
as Ethan Mack
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Remarkably Bright Creatures
as Ethan Mack
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Monkey
as MacDonell
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Remarkably Bright Creatures
as Ethan Mack
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Die Hard 2
as Windsor Plane - Pilot
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Soldiers of Fortune
as Mason
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Monkey
as MacDonell
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Die Hard 2
as Windsor Plane - Pilot
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Ted Levine
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Robert De Niro
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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