Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3533
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Delroy Lindo represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 35 years in, and Delroy is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Delroy Lindo appears in 23 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Delroy. Sinners is the clearest case: a film rated 8.7 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 action, science fiction, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Ryan Coogler, Spike Lee, Pete Docter and others, Delroy Lindo 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.
Sinners (2025) as Delta Slim · Up (2009) as Beta (voice) · Bound by Honor (1993) as Bonafide
Career snapshot
Ranked #3533 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
23
1992–2027
Career length
35 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.7
Sinners
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.2
Bound by Honor
Most frequent director
Spike Lee
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Spike Lee
Most common genre
Thriller
13 titles
Average runtime
2h 1m
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
1990s
6.8 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. The Cider House Rules, A Life Less Ordinary, Ransom — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.8
Across 8 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.9
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 Cider House Rules, A Life Less Ordinary, Ransom.
Most productive era
2000s
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 | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.34 films | 6.34 films | 6.73 films |
| Action | 6.42 films | 6.37 films | 3.82 films |
| Thriller | 6.84 films | 6.37 films | 8.12 films |
| Comedy | 6.32 films | 7.02 films | — |
| Crime | 7.03 films | 6.34 films | — |
| Romance | 6.21 film | — | — |
| Horror | — | — | 8.12 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1992Malcolm X
Where our catalogue meets this career, as West Indian Archie.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2025Sinners
8.7 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
2027Godzilla x Kong: Supernova
The current state of the argument.
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.
23 of 23 films
as Delta Slim
Directed by Ryan Coogler
as Beta (voice)
Directed by Pete Docter
as Bonafide
Directed by Taylor Hackford
as Delta Slim
Directed by Ryan Coogler
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 26 titles · 27 total credits · active 1987–2027
Godzilla x Kong: Supernova
2027 · Actor
Sinners
2025 · Delta Slim
UnPrisoned
2023 · TV · Edwin Alexander · Executive Producer
The Harder They Fall
2021 · Bass Reeves
LX 2048
2020 · Donald Stein
Da 5 Bloods
2020 · Paul
The Good Fight
2017 · TV · Adrian Boseman
Believe
2014 · TV · Dr. Milton Winter
Up
2009 · Beta (voice)
Domino
2005 · Claremont Williams
Sahara
2005 · Carl
The Core
2003 · Dr. Ed 'Braz' Brazzleton
The Last Castle
2001 · Gen. Wheeler
The One
2001 · MVA Agent Harry Roedecker / Gas Station Attendant
Heist
2001 · Bobby 'Bob' Blane
Romeo Must Die
2000 · Isaak O'Day
Gone in Sixty Seconds
2000 · Det. Roland Castlebeck
The Cider House Rules
1999 · Arthur Rose
A Life Less Ordinary
1997 · Jackson
Ransom
1996 · Agent Lonnie Hawkins
Broken Arrow
1996 · Colonel Max Wilkins
Clockers
1995 · Rodney Little
Get Shorty
1995 · Bo Catlett
Bound by Honor
1993 · Bonafide
The defining work
#1
Delta Slim
Sinners (2025)
Performance score8.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Delta Slim gives Delroy Lindo a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Beta (voice)
Up (2009)
Performance score8.2
Up asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Beta (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Bonafide
Bound by Honor (1993)
Performance score7.9
Bound by Honor asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bonafide is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
West Indian Archie
Malcolm X (1992)
Performance score7.5
Malcolm X asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. West Indian Archie 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 Delta Slim
Start here. Sinners is the clearest statement of what Delroy Lindo does — accessible, 137 minutes, and rated 8.7 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Delroy 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.
Malcolm X (1992)
Keeps the drama register of Sinners but asks for a colder reading of it.
Bound by Honor (1993)
Keeps the drama register of Malcolm X but asks for a colder reading of it.
Up (2009)
A deliberate change of key after Bound by Honor — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Sinners (2025)
A deliberate change of key after Up — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Spike Lee
Director
3 films together
Notably Malcolm X
Ryan Coogler
Director
2 films together
Notably Sinners
Taylor Hackford
Director
1 film together
Notably Bound by Honor
Barry Sonnenfeld
Director
1 film together
Notably Get Shorty
John Woo
Director
1 film together
Notably Broken Arrow
Ron Howard
Director
1 film together
Notably Ransom
Danny Boyle
Director
1 film together
Notably A Life Less Ordinary
Lasse Hallström
Director
1 film together
Notably The Cider House Rules
Andrzej Bartkowiak
Director
1 film together
Notably Romeo Must Die
David Mamet
Director
1 film together
Notably Heist
James Wong
Director
1 film together
Notably The One
Rod Lurie
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last Castle
Jon Amiel
Director
1 film together
Notably The Core
Breck Eisner
Director
1 film together
Notably Sahara
Tony Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably Domino
Pete Docter
Director
1 film together
Notably Up
Michael B. Jordan
Actor
1 film together
Notably Sinners
Hailee Steinfeld
Actor
1 film together
Notably Sinners
Miles Caton
Actor
1 film together
Notably Sinners
Jack O'Connell
Actor
1 film together
Notably Sinners
Wunmi Mosaku
Actor
1 film together
Notably Sinners
Jayme Lawson
Actor
1 film together
Notably Sinners
Omar Benson Miller
Actor
1 film together
Notably Sinners
Li Jun Li
Actor
1 film together
Notably Sinners
Yao
Actor
1 film together
Notably Sinners
Lola Kirke
Actor
1 film together
Notably Sinners
Peter Dreimanis
Actor
1 film together
Notably Sinners
Buddy Guy
Actor
1 film together
Notably Sinners
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Spike Lee
Director
3 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Malcolm XRyan Coogler
Director
2 films together · 8.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
SinnersPete Docter
Director
1 film together · 8.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
UpTaylor 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 HonorRod Lurie
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Last CastleLasse Hallström
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 Cider House RulesRon Howard
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RansomBarry Sonnenfeld
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Get ShortyDavid Mamet
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HeistAndrzej Bartkowiak
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Romeo Must DieDanny Boyle
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Life Less OrdinaryJames Wong
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The OneJohn Woo
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Broken ArrowTony Scott
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DominoBreck Eisner
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SaharaJon Amiel
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 CoreSix 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
Sinners
as Delta Slim
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Malcolm X
as West Indian Archie
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Sinners
as Delta Slim
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Sinners
as Delta Slim
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Sinners
as Delta Slim
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. Delroy Lindo 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 | 7.9 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #545 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 8.7 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Horror, Thriller, Drama | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Ryan Coogler | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Intensity, Quiet performance, Screen presence | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 2025–2025 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Delta Slim — Sinners | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | Sinners | 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
Thriller Movies, Drama 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
35 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.
Thriller Legend
Awarded
13 catalogue titles in thriller, 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
Sinners
as Delta Slim
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Sinners
as Delta Slim
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Malcolm X
as West Indian Archie
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Clockers
as Rodney Little
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Sinners
as Delta Slim
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Sahara
as Carl
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Bound by Honor
as Bonafide
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Sinners
as Delta Slim
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 4 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
From the magazine
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
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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
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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