Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2437
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Conrad Vernon represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 26 years in, and Conrad is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Conrad Vernon appears in 31 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Conrad. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is the clearest case: a film rated 8.3 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 Conrad Vernon, Chris Miller, Joel Crawford and others, Conrad Vernon 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.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) as Gingy (voice) · Shrek (2001) as Gingerbread Man (voice) · Shrek 2 (2004) as Gingerbread Man / Cedric / Announcer / Muffin Man / Mongo (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #2437 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
31
2001–2027
Career length
26 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.3
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.2
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Most frequent director
Conrad Vernon
4 films together
Longest collaboration
4×
With Conrad Vernon
Most common genre
Animation
30 titles
Average runtime
1h 9m
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
6.4
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
6.7 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Monsters vs Aliens, Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.7
Across 13 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.6
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. Monsters vs Aliens, Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.
Most productive era
2000s
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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Action | 7.11 film | 6.82 films | — |
| Comedy | 6.611 films | 6.413 films | 3.84 films |
| Romance | 7.51 film | — | — |
| Horror | — | 6.71 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2001Shrek
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Gingerbread Man (voice).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2022Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
8.3 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
2027Shrek 5
The current state of the argument, as Gingy (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.
31 of 31 films
as Gingy (voice)
Directed by Joel Crawford
as Gingerbread Man (voice)
Directed by Andrew Adamson
as Gingerbread Man / Cedric / Announcer / Muffin Man / Mongo (voice)
Directed by Andrew Adamson
as Boar (voice)
Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson
as Mason (voice)
Directed by Eric Darnell
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
Gingy (voice)
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)
Performance score8.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Gingy (voice) gives Conrad Vernon a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Gingerbread Man (voice)
Shrek (2001)
Performance score7.8
Shrek asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Gingerbread Man (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Gingerbread Man / Cedric / Announcer / Muffin Man / Mongo (voice)
Shrek 2 (2004)
Performance score7.3
Shrek 2 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Gingerbread Man / Cedric / Announcer / Muffin Man / Mongo (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Boar (voice)
Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
Performance score7.0
Kung Fu Panda 2 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Boar (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 Gingy (voice)
Start here. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is the clearest statement of what Conrad Vernon does — accessible, 103 minutes, and rated 8.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Conrad 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.
Shrek (2001)
Keeps the comedy register of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish but asks for a colder reading of it.
Shrek 2 (2004)
Same director as Shrek, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Madagascar (2005)
Keeps the comedy register of Shrek 2 but asks for a colder reading of it.
Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
Keeps the comedy register of Madagascar but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Eric Darnell
Director
4 films together
Notably Madagascar
Conrad Vernon
Director
4 films together
Notably The Addams Family 2
Simon J. Smith
Director
3 films together
Notably Far Far Away Idol
Chris Miller
Director
3 films together
Notably Puss in Boots
Andrew Adamson
Director
2 films together
Notably Shrek
Gary Trousdale
Director
2 films together
Notably Scared Shrekless
Tim Johnson
Director
2 films together
Notably Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
Peter Ramsey
Director
1 film together
Notably Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space
Rob Letterman
Director
1 film together
Notably Monsters vs Aliens
Walt Dohrn
Director
1 film together
Notably Donkey's Christmas Shrektacular
Mike Mitchell
Director
1 film together
Notably Shrek Forever After
Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Director
1 film together
Notably Kung Fu Panda 2
Tom McGrath
Director
1 film together
Notably The Boss Baby
Joel Crawford
Director
1 film together
Notably Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Eric Darnell
Director
4 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
MadagascarConrad Vernon
Director
4 films together · 4.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Addams Family 2Chris Miller
Director
3 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Puss in BootsSimon J. Smith
Director
3 films together · 6.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Far Far Away IdolAndrew Adamson
Director
2 films together · 7.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
ShrekTim Johnson
Director
2 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven SeasGary Trousdale
Director
2 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Scared ShreklessJoel Crawford
Director
1 film together · 8.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Puss in Boots: The Last WishJennifer Yuh Nelson
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kung Fu Panda 2Tom McGrath
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Boss BabyRob Letterman
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Monsters vs AliensMike Mitchell
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Shrek Forever AfterPeter Ramsey
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mutant Pumpkins from Outer SpaceWalt Dohrn
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Donkey's Christmas ShrektacularSix 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
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
as Gingy (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
Shrek 2
as Gingerbread Man / Cedric / Announcer / Muffin Man / Mongo (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
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
as Gingy (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Kung Fu Panda 2
as Boar (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
as Gingy (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. Conrad Vernon 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
26 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.
Animation Legend
Awarded
30 catalogue titles in animation, 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
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
as Gingy (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
as Gingy (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Smurfs
as Butler (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Smurfs
as Butler (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
as Gingy (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
as Jed (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Shrek 2
as Gingerbread Man / Cedric / Announcer / Muffin Man / Mongo (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Monsters vs Aliens
as Advisor Hawk / Advisor Dither / Minister / Secret Service Man #2 / Mama Dietl (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
Catherine Lagaʻaia
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and family
Dwayne Johnson
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and family
Rena Owen
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and family
John Tui
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and family
Have your say
Community
Which Conrad Vernon 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
