Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#6042
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
David Cowgill represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 28 years in, and David is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
David Cowgill appears in 27 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without David. Big Hero 6 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, emotional range. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for comedy, fantasy, family. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Phil Johnston, Chris Buck, Chris Butler and others, David Cowgill 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.
Big Hero 6 (2014) as Additional Voice (voice) · Mulan (1998) as Additional Voices (voice) · Tangled (2010) as Additional Voices (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #6042 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
27
1997–2025
Career length
28 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.0
Big Hero 6
Average Nutevio score
6.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.9
Mulan
Most frequent director
Byron Howard
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Byron Howard
Most common genre
Animation
26 titles
Average runtime
1h 26m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.1
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
6.7
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
7.4 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Tarzan, Mulan, Kiss the Girls — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.4
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
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. Tarzan, Mulan, Kiss the Girls.
Most productive era
2010s
16 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 | 6.61 film | — | 7.41 film | — |
| Action | — | — | 7.25 films | — |
| Thriller | 6.61 film | — | — | — |
| Comedy | — | 6.45 films | 6.912 films | 5.91 film |
| Crime | 6.61 film | — | — | — |
| Romance | — | 5.41 film | 6.41 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1997Kiss the Girls
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Chief Resident.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1998Mulan
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.
Most recent film
2025The Twits
The current state of the argument, as Golf Announcer (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.
27 of 27 films
as Additional Voice (voice)
Directed by Chris Williams
as Additional Voices (voice)
Directed by Tony Bancroft
as Additional Voices (voice)
Directed by Byron Howard
as Additional Characters (voice)
Directed by Patrick Osborne
as Additional Voices (voice)
Directed by Brad Bird
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
Additional Voice (voice)
Big Hero 6 (2014)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Additional Voice (voice) gives David Cowgill a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Additional Voices (voice)
Mulan (1998)
Performance score7.8
Mulan asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Additional Voices (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Additional Voices (voice)
Tangled (2010)
Performance score7.6
Tangled asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Additional Voices (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Additional Characters (voice)
Feast (2014)
Performance score7.5
Feast asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Additional Characters (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 Additional Voice (voice)
Start here. Big Hero 6 is the clearest statement of what David Cowgill does — accessible, 102 minutes, and rated 8.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet David 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.
Mulan (1998)
Keeps the adventure register of Big Hero 6 but asks for a colder reading of it.
Tangled (2010)
Keeps the adventure register of Mulan but asks for a colder reading of it.
Feast (2014)
Keeps the family register of Tangled but asks for a colder reading of it.
Incredibles 2 (2018)
Keeps the family register of Feast but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Byron Howard
Director
2 films together
Notably Tangled
Gary Fleder
Director
1 film together
Notably Kiss the Girls
Tony Bancroft
Director
1 film together
Notably Mulan
Kevin Lima
Director
1 film together
Notably Tarzan
Bradley Raymond
Director
1 film together
Notably The Hunchback of Notre Dame II
Eric Darnell
Director
1 film together
Notably Madagascar
Roger Allers
Director
1 film together
Notably Open Season
Cody Cameron
Director
1 film together
Notably Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
Chris Wedge
Director
1 film together
Notably Epic
Rob Minkoff
Director
1 film together
Notably Mr. Peabody & Sherman
Jorge R. Gutierrez
Director
1 film together
Notably The Book of Life
Carlos Saldanha
Director
1 film together
Notably Rio 2
Chris Williams
Director
1 film together
Notably Big Hero 6
Patrick Osborne
Director
1 film together
Notably Feast
Genndy Tartakovsky
Director
1 film together
Notably Hotel Transylvania 2
Stevie Wermers-Skelton
Director
1 film together
Notably Olaf's Frozen Adventure
Brad Bird
Director
1 film together
Notably Incredibles 2
Ross Venokur
Director
1 film together
Notably Charming
Thurop Van Orman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Angry Birds Movie 2
Chris Butler
Director
1 film together
Notably Missing Link
Chris Buck
Director
1 film together
Notably Frozen II
Phil Johnston
Director
1 film together
Notably The Twits
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Byron Howard
Director
2 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
TangledChris Williams
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Big Hero 6Tony Bancroft
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MulanBrad Bird
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Incredibles 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 LifeKevin Lima
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TarzanPatrick Osborne
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FeastChris Buck
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Frozen IIThurop Van Orman
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Angry Birds Movie 2Eric Darnell
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MadagascarChris Butler
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Missing LinkGenndy Tartakovsky
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hotel Transylvania 2Rob Minkoff
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mr. Peabody & ShermanChris Wedge
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EpicGary Fleder
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kiss the GirlsStevie Wermers-Skelton
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Olaf's Frozen AdventureCarlos Saldanha
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rio 2Cody Cameron
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2Ross Venokur
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CharmingRoger Allers
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Open SeasonPhil Johnston
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The TwitsBradley Raymond
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Hunchback of Notre Dame IISix 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
Big Hero 6
as Additional Voice (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
Mulan
as Additional Voices (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
Mulan
as Additional Voices (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Tarzan
as Additional Voices (voice) (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Big Hero 6
as Additional Voice (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. David Cowgill 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
28 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
26 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
The Book of Life
as Additional Voices (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Big Hero 6
as Additional Voice (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Charming
as Additional Voices (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Kiss the Girls
as Chief Resident
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Big Hero 6
as Additional Voice (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Missing Link
as New Worlder (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Charming
as Additional Voices (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Big Hero 6
as Additional Voice (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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