Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#251
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Danny Trejo represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 40 years in, and Danny is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Danny Trejo appears in 91 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Danny. Heat is the clearest case: a film rated 9.0 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, comedy, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Byron Howard, Paul Rodríguez, Jordan VanDina and others, Danny Trejo 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.
Heat (1995) as Trejo · Heat (1995) as Trejo · Bound by Honor (1993) as Geronimo
Career snapshot
Ranked #251 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
91
1985–2025
Career length
40 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.0
Heat
Average Nutevio score
5.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.3
Heat
Most frequent director
Robert Rodriguez
10 films together
Longest collaboration
10×
With Robert Rodriguez
Most common genre
Action
46 titles
Average runtime
1h 33m
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
6.6
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
1980s
6.9 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Lock Up, Runaway Train — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
6.9
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
6.9
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Lock Up, Runaway Train.
Most productive era
2020s
38 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 | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.92 films | 7.14 films | 6.31 film | 6.23 films | 4.06 films |
| Action | 6.92 films | 6.611 films | 5.710 films | 5.612 films | 5.111 films |
| Thriller | 6.92 films | 6.69 films | 6.15 films | 5.98 films | 5.28 films |
| Comedy | — | 6.11 film | 5.89 films | 5.38 films | 5.518 films |
| Crime | 6.81 film | 7.09 films | 6.14 films | 5.74 films | 5.24 films |
| Romance | — | 6.22 films | 5.81 film | 2.31 film | 4.71 film |
| Horror | — | 5.84 films | 5.64 films | 5.81 film | 4.29 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1985Runaway Train
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Boxer.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
1995Heat
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.0 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.
Most recent film
2025The Wrecker
The current state of the argument, as Eduardo.
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.
91 of 91 films
as Trejo
Directed by Michael Mann
as Trejo
Directed by Michael Mann
as Geronimo
Directed by Taylor Hackford
as Jesús (voice)
Directed by Byron Howard
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 111 titles · 112 total credits · active 1985–2026
5 Things with Jay Mewes
2026 · TV · Self - Guest
Zootopia 2
2025 · Jesús (voice)
Magical Meat
2025 · Self
Goldfish
2025 · Actor
Hubbard Street
2025 · Sebastian
Tim Travers and the Time Traveler's Paradox
2025 · Royce
The Wrecker
2025 · Eduardo
E.B. White's Charlotte's Web
2025 · TV · Gander (voice)
Holy Cash
2024 · Actor
Gracie & Pedro: Pets to the Rescue
2024 · Laurence (voice)
The Night They Came Home
2024 · Digger
Seven Cemeteries
2024 · Bravo
Mr. Birchum
2024 · TV · Switchblade (voice)
Hunting Games
2023 · Sheriff Ramos
The Dream Americano
2023 · Self
The Muppets Mayhem
2023 · TV · Danny Trejo
It's a Wonderful Binge
2022 · Angel
The Prey: Legend of Karnoctus
2022 · Vega
Minions: The Rise of Gru
2022 · Stronghold (voice)
Caroltyn
2022 · Wells
Clerks III
2022 · Auditioner
Wolf Mountain
2022 · Eddie
The Legend of La Llorona
2022 · Jorge
Goodbye Brooklyn Nine-Nine
2022 · Oscar Diaz (archive footage)
The defining work
#1
Trejo
Heat (1995)
Performance score8.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Trejo gives Danny Trejo a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Trejo
Heat (1995)
Performance score7.8
Heat asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Trejo is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Self
Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo (2019)
Performance score7.7
Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Geronimo
Bound by Honor (1993)
Performance score7.7
Bound by Honor asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Geronimo 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 Trejo
Start here. Heat is the clearest statement of what Danny Trejo does — accessible, 170 minutes, and rated 9.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Danny 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.
Bound by Honor (1993)
Keeps the crime register of Heat but asks for a colder reading of it.
Heat (1995)
Keeps the crime register of Bound by Honor but asks for a colder reading of it.
Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo (2019)
A deliberate change of key after Heat — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Zootopia 2 (2025)
A deliberate change of key after Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Robert Rodriguez
Director
10 films together
Notably From Dusk Till Dawn
Michael Mann
Director
2 films together
Notably Heat
Adam McKay
Director
2 films together
Notably Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Andrei Konchalovsky
Director
1 film together
Notably Runaway Train
John Flynn
Director
1 film together
Notably Lock Up
William Lustig
Director
1 film together
Notably Maniac Cop 2
Dwight H. Little
Director
1 film together
Notably Marked for Death
Taylor Hackford
Director
1 film together
Notably Bound by Honor
Simon West
Director
1 film together
Notably Con Air
Luis Llosa
Director
1 film together
Notably Anaconda
Ivan Reitman
Director
1 film together
Notably Six Days Seven Nights
Antoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together
Notably The Replacement Killers
John G. Avildsen
Director
1 film together
Notably Inferno
Scott Spiegel
Director
1 film together
Notably From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money
Steve Buscemi
Director
1 film together
Notably Animal Factory
John Frankenheimer
Director
1 film together
Notably Reindeer Games
P.J. Pesce
Director
1 film together
Notably From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter
Gregg Araki
Director
1 film together
Notably Smiley Face
Quentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together
Notably Grindhouse
Nimród Antal
Director
1 film together
Notably Predators
Roel Reiné
Director
1 film together
Notably Death Race 2
James Bobin
Director
1 film together
Notably Muppets Most Wanted
Jorge R. Gutierrez
Director
1 film together
Notably The Book of Life
Frank Coraci
Director
1 film together
Notably The Ridiculous 6
Nicholas Stoller
Director
1 film together
Notably Storks
Don Michael Paul
Director
1 film together
Notably Death Race: Beyond Anarchy
Jason Mewes
Director
1 film together
Notably Madness in the Method
Ron Oliver
Director
1 film together
Notably Grand-Daddy Day Care
Rob Zombie
Director
1 film together
Notably 3 from Hell
Robin Bain
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last Exorcist
Mike Elliott
Director
1 film together
Notably American Pie Presents: Girls' Rules
Tim Hill
Director
1 film together
Notably The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run
Glenn Danzig
Director
1 film together
Notably Death Rider in the House of Vampires
Nick Lyon
Director
1 film together
Notably The Rebels of PT-218
Linda Mendoza
Director
1 film together
Notably Comedy Chingonas
Kirk R. Thatcher
Director
1 film together
Notably Muppets Haunted Mansion
Mod Sun
Director
1 film together
Notably Good Mourning
David Lipper
Director
1 film together
Notably Wolf Mountain
Kevin Smith
Director
1 film together
Notably Clerks III
Kyle Balda
Director
1 film together
Notably Minions: The Rise of Gru
Jordan VanDina
Director
1 film together
Notably It's a Wonderful Binge
Paul Rodríguez
Director
1 film together
Notably Holy Cash
Byron Howard
Director
1 film together
Notably Zootopia 2
Robert De Niro
Actor
1 film together
Notably Heat
Al Pacino
Actor
1 film together
Notably Heat
Ted Levine
Actor
1 film together
Notably Heat
Val Kilmer
Actor
1 film together
Notably Heat
Jon Voight
Actor
1 film together
Notably Heat
Tom Sizemore
Actor
1 film together
Notably Heat
Diane Venora
Actor
1 film together
Notably Heat
Amy Brenneman
Actor
1 film together
Notably Heat
Ashley Judd
Actor
1 film together
Notably Heat
Mykelti Williamson
Actor
1 film together
Notably Heat
Wes Studi
Actor
1 film together
Notably Heat
Dennis Haysbert
Actor
1 film together
Notably Heat
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Robert Rodriguez
Director
10 films together · 6.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 10 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
From Dusk Till DawnMichael Mann
Director
2 films together · 8.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
HeatAdam McKay
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron BurgundyTaylor Hackford
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bound by HonorByron Howard
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Zootopia 2Jorge R. Gutierrez
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Book of LifeTim Hill
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 SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the RunKyle Balda
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Minions: The Rise of GruQuentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GrindhouseAndrei Konchalovsky
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Runaway TrainSimon 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 AirJohn Flynn
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lock UpNicholas Stoller
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
StorksKirk R. Thatcher
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Muppets Haunted MansionJames Bobin
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Muppets Most WantedNimród Antal
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PredatorsSteve Buscemi
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Animal FactoryAntoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Replacement KillersDon Michael Paul
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Death Race: Beyond AnarchyJohn G. Avildsen
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
InfernoMike Elliott
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
American Pie Presents: Girls' RulesGregg Araki
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Smiley FaceIvan Reitman
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Six Days Seven NightsDwight H. Little
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Marked for DeathPaul Rodríguez
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Holy CashKevin Smith
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Clerks IIIRoel Reiné
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Death Race 2William Lustig
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Maniac Cop 2Rob Zombie
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
3 from HellRon Oliver
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Grand-Daddy Day CareJohn Frankenheimer
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Reindeer GamesLuis Llosa
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AnacondaDavid Lipper
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wolf MountainJason Mewes
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Madness in the MethodFrank Coraci
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Ridiculous 6Jordan VanDina
Director
1 film together · 4.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
It's a Wonderful BingeP.J. Pesce
Director
1 film together · 4.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's DaughterMod Sun
Director
1 film together · 4.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Good MourningScott Spiegel
Director
1 film together · 4.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood MoneyRobin Bain
Director
1 film together · 4.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Last ExorcistNick Lyon
Director
1 film together · 3.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Rebels of PT-218Glenn Danzig
Director
1 film together · 3.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Death Rider in the House of VampiresLinda Mendoza
Director
1 film together · 2.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Comedy ChingonasSix 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
Heat
as Trejo
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 Book of Life
as Skeleton Luis (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
Heat
as Trejo
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Grindhouse
as Machete (segment "Planet Terror")
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Heat
as Trejo
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. Danny Trejo has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.2 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #242 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.0 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Crime, Thriller, Action | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Michael Mann | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Intensity, Villain presence, Screen presence | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 1995–1995 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Trejo — Heat | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | Heat | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared collections
Top 100 Crime Movies, Crime Movies, Thriller Movies
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
40 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.
Action Legend
Awarded
46 catalogue titles in action, 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
Heat
as Trejo
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Heat
as Trejo
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Book of Life
as Skeleton Luis (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Zootopia 2
as Jesús (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Heat
as Trejo
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Night They Came Home
as Digger
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run
as El Diablo
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Heat
as Trejo
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 6 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
theme
Best Heist Movies
Features Heat at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Best Action Movies
Features Heat at #2
Read the collectiongenre
Top 100 Crime Movies
Features Heat
Read the collectiongenre
Action Movies
Features Heat
Read the collectiongenre
Crime Movies
Features Heat
Read the collectiongenre
Thriller Movies
Features Heat
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
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
Harvey Keitel
Works with the same directors — Quentin Tarantino
Ted Levine
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Have your say
Community
Which Danny Trejo 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
