Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#4807
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Damian Young represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 27 years in, and Damian is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Damian Young appears in 19 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Damian. Fucktoys is the clearest case: a film rated 8.9 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, drama, history. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Annapurna Sriram, J Blakeson, Aaron Sorkin and others, Damian Young 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.
Fucktoys (2025) as Robert · The Greatest Showman (2017) as Mr. Winthrop · The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) as Howard Ackerman
Career snapshot
Ranked #4807 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
19
1998–2025
Career length
27 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.9
Fucktoys
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.9
Fucktoys
Most frequent director
Annapurna Sriram
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Annapurna Sriram
Most common genre
Drama
14 titles
Average runtime
1h 48m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
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
6.8
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
2020s
7.3 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. The Luckiest Man in America, Fucktoys, Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
7.3
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
7.3
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 Object of My Affection.
Most productive era
2010s
9 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 | 5.81 film | 6.93 films | 6.66 films | 6.94 films |
| Action | — | — | 6.32 films | — |
| Thriller | — | 7.31 film | 6.12 films | 6.61 film |
| Comedy | — | 5.82 films | 6.65 films | 7.24 films |
| Crime | — | — | 6.43 films | 6.61 film |
| Romance | 5.81 film | 6.61 film | 6.31 film | 7.11 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1998The Object of My Affection
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Romeo & Juliet Director.
Highest rated performance · Career peak · Most recent film
2025Fucktoys
8.9 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 Robert.
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.
19 of 19 films
as Howard Ackerman
Directed by Aaron Sorkin
as Green Army-Jacketed Man
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
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
Robert
Fucktoys (2025)
Performance score8.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Robert gives Damian Young a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Mr. Winthrop
The Greatest Showman (2017)
Performance score7.8
The Greatest Showman asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mr. Winthrop is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Howard Ackerman
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
Performance score7.5
The Trial of the Chicago 7 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Howard Ackerman is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Gabriel
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
Performance score7.2
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Gabriel 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 Robert
Start here. Fucktoys is the clearest statement of what Damian Young does — accessible, 106 minutes, and rated 8.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Damian 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.
Unbreakable (2000)
A deliberate change of key after Fucktoys — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
Keeps the drama register of Unbreakable but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Greatest Showman (2017)
Keeps the drama register of Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
Keeps the drama register of The Greatest Showman but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Nicholas Hytner
Director
1 film together
Notably The Object of My Affection
Chris Koch
Director
1 film together
Notably Snow Day
M. Night Shyamalan
Director
1 film together
Notably Unbreakable
Michael Patrick King
Director
1 film together
Notably Sex and the City
Kirk Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably Everybody's Fine
Martin Campbell
Director
1 film together
Notably Edge of Darkness
Joel Schumacher
Director
1 film together
Notably Twelve
David Frankel
Director
1 film together
Notably Hope Springs
Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Director
1 film together
Notably Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Todd Haynes
Director
1 film together
Notably Wonderstruck
Michael Gracey
Director
1 film together
Notably The Greatest Showman
Gary Ross
Director
1 film together
Notably Ocean's Eight
Cindy Chupack
Director
1 film together
Notably Otherhood
Aaron Sorkin
Director
1 film together
Notably The Trial of the Chicago 7
J Blakeson
Director
1 film together
Notably I Care a Lot
Annapurna Sriram
Director
1 film together
Notably Fucktoys
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Annapurna Sriram
Director
1 film together · 8.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FucktoysMichael Gracey
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Greatest ShowmanAaron Sorkin
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Trial of the Chicago 7Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)M. Night Shyamalan
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
UnbreakableGary Ross
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ocean's EightKirk Jones
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Everybody's FineJ Blakeson
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
I Care a LotMichael Patrick King
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sex and the CityMartin Campbell
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Edge of DarknessDavid Frankel
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hope SpringsCindy Chupack
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
OtherhoodTodd Haynes
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
WonderstruckNicholas Hytner
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Object of My AffectionJoel Schumacher
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TwelveChris Koch
Director
1 film together · 5.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Snow DaySix 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
Fucktoys
as Robert
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 Trial of the Chicago 7
as Howard Ackerman
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Fucktoys
as Robert
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Object of My Affection
as Romeo & Juliet Director
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Fucktoys
as Robert
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. Damian Young 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
27 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
14 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
Fucktoys
as Robert
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Unbreakable
as Green Army-Jacketed Man
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game
as Ben Chikofsky
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Unbreakable
as Green Army-Jacketed Man
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Fucktoys
as Robert
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Ocean's Eight
as David Welch
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game
as Ben Chikofsky
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Unbreakable
as Green Army-Jacketed Man
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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David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Robert Downey Jr.
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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