Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3073
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
David Herman represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 34 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 Herman appears in 11 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without David. Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost is the clearest case: a film rated 7.9 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, adventure, mystery. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Josh Greenbaum, Loren Bouchard, Albert Calleros and others, David Herman 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.
Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost (2019) as Sheriff (voice) · Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! (2020) as Sheriff, AKA: Cutler Toe (voice) · Office Space (1999) as Michael Bolton
Career snapshot
Ranked #3073 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
11
1989–2023
Career length
34 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.9
Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost
Average Nutevio score
6.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.9
Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost
Most frequent director
Josh Greenbaum
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Josh Greenbaum
Most common genre
Comedy
10 titles
Average runtime
1h 34m
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
6.8
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
2010s
7.5 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island, Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
7.5
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
7.5
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. Born on the Fourth of July.
Most productive era
2020s
4 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 | 7.01 film | — | — | — | — |
| Comedy | — | 7.41 film | 6.13 films | 7.52 films | 7.24 films |
| Crime | — | — | 6.21 film | — | 6.91 film |
| Horror | — | — | — | 7.01 film | 7.81 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1989Born on the Fourth of July
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Patient - VA Hospital.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2019Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost
7.9 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.
Most recent film
2023Strays
The current state of the argument, as Underbite Pound Dog (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.
11 of 11 films
as Sheriff (voice)
Directed by Cecilia Aranovich
as Michael Bolton
Directed by Mike Judge
as Sheriff, AKA: Cutler Toe (voice)
Directed by Maxwell Atoms
as Underbite Pound Dog (voice)
Directed by Josh Greenbaum
as Jack / Sheriff (voice)
Directed by Ethan Spaulding
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
Sheriff (voice)
Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost (2019)
Performance score7.9
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Sheriff (voice) gives David Herman a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Michael Bolton
Office Space (1999)
Performance score7.7
Office Space asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Michael Bolton is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Sheriff, AKA: Cutler Toe (voice)
Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! (2020)
Performance score7.6
Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sheriff, AKA: Cutler Toe (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Underbite Pound Dog (voice)
Strays (2023)
Performance score7.1
Strays asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Underbite Pound Dog (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 Sheriff (voice)
Start here. Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost is the clearest statement of what David Herman does — accessible, 82 minutes, and rated 7.9 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.
Office Space (1999)
Keeps the comedy register of Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost but asks for a colder reading of it.
Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island (2019)
Keeps the comedy register of Office Space but asks for a colder reading of it.
Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! (2020)
Keeps the mystery register of Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island but asks for a colder reading of it.
Strays (2023)
Keeps the comedy register of Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Oliver Stone
Director
1 film together
Notably Born on the Fourth of July
Mike Judge
Director
1 film together
Notably Office Space
Dean Parisot
Director
1 film together
Notably Fun with Dick and Jane
Simon J. Smith
Director
1 film together
Notably Bee Movie
Cecilia Aranovich
Director
1 film together
Notably Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost
Ethan Spaulding
Director
1 film together
Notably Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island
Maxwell Atoms
Director
1 film together
Notably Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo!
Albert Calleros
Director
1 film together
Notably Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe
Loren Bouchard
Director
1 film together
Notably The Bob's Burgers Movie
Josh Greenbaum
Director
1 film together
Notably Strays
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Cecilia Aranovich
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th GhostMaxwell Atoms
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo!Mike Judge
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Office SpaceJosh Greenbaum
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
StraysEthan Spaulding
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie IslandOliver Stone
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Born on the Fourth of JulyLoren Bouchard
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Bob's Burgers MovieAlbert Calleros
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Beavis and Butt-Head Do the UniverseSimon J. Smith
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bee MovieDean Parisot
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fun with Dick and JaneSix 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
Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost
as Sheriff (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
Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island
as Jack / Sheriff (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
Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost
as Sheriff (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Born on the Fourth of July
as Patient - VA Hospital
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost
as Sheriff (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 Herman 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
34 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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
10 catalogue titles in comedy, 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
Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo!
as Sheriff, AKA: Cutler Toe (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo!
as Sheriff, AKA: Cutler Toe (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island
as Jack / Sheriff (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island
as Jack / Sheriff (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost
as Sheriff (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Strays
as Underbite Pound Dog (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island
as Jack / Sheriff (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Bee Movie
as Buzz / Bob Bumble / Pilot (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
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Harvey Keitel
Built a career in the same territory: comedy and adventure
Have your say
Community
Which David Herman 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
