Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2416
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Dylan McDermott represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 34 years in, and Dylan is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Dylan McDermott appears in 15 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Dylan. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the clearest case: a film rated 7.8 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 drama, history, mystery. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Reinaldo Marcus Green, James McTeigue, Gabe Ibáñez and others, Dylan McDermott 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.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) as Father · King Richard (2021) as Will Hodges · Runaway Jury (2003) as Jacob Wood (victim)
Career snapshot
Ranked #2416 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
15
1987–2021
Career length
34 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.8
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.8
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Most frequent director
Reinaldo Marcus Green
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Reinaldo Marcus Green
Most common genre
Drama
9 titles
Average runtime
1h 49m
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
6.6
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
2020s
7.6 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. King Richard — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
7.6
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
7.6
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. Hamburger Hill.
Most productive era
2010s
8 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 | 6.51 film | 6.63 films | 7.01 film | 6.83 films | 7.61 film |
| Action | 6.51 film | 6.52 films | — | 6.12 films | — |
| Thriller | — | 6.52 films | 6.42 films | 6.03 films | — |
| Comedy | — | 6.01 film | — | 5.52 films | — |
| Crime | — | 6.52 films | — | 6.12 films | — |
| Romance | — | — | — | 6.11 film | — |
| Horror | — | — | 5.81 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1987Hamburger Hill
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Sgt. Adam Frantz.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2012The Perks of Being a Wallflower
7.8 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
2021King Richard
The current state of the argument, as Will Hodges.
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.
15 of 15 films
as Will Hodges
Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green
as Bryan Bedford
Directed by Les Mayfield
as Sgt. Adam Frantz
Directed by John Irvin
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
Father
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Father gives Dylan McDermott a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Will Hodges
King Richard (2021)
Performance score7.4
King Richard asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Will Hodges is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Bryan Bedford
Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
Performance score7.2
Miracle on 34th Street asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bryan Bedford is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Sgt. Adam Frantz
Hamburger Hill (1987)
Performance score7.2
Hamburger Hill asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sgt. Adam Frantz 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 Father
Start here. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the clearest statement of what Dylan McDermott does — accessible, 103 minutes, and rated 7.8 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Dylan 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.
Hamburger Hill (1987)
Keeps the drama register of The Perks of Being a Wallflower but asks for a colder reading of it.
Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
Keeps the drama register of Hamburger Hill but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Clovehitch Killer (2018)
Keeps the drama register of Miracle on 34th Street but asks for a colder reading of it.
King Richard (2021)
Keeps the drama register of The Clovehitch Killer but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
John Irvin
Director
1 film together
Notably Hamburger Hill
Wolfgang Petersen
Director
1 film together
Notably In the Line of Fire
Les Mayfield
Director
1 film together
Notably Miracle on 34th Street
Gregg Champion
Director
1 film together
Notably The Cowboy Way
Gary Fleder
Director
1 film together
Notably Runaway Jury
Danny Pang Phat
Director
1 film together
Notably The Messengers
Jay Roach
Director
1 film together
Notably The Campaign
Stephen Chbosky
Director
1 film together
Notably The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Antoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together
Notably Olympus Has Fallen
Gabe Ibáñez
Director
1 film together
Notably Automata
James McTeigue
Director
1 film together
Notably Survivor
Reinaldo Marcus Green
Director
1 film together
Notably King Richard
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Stephen Chbosky
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Perks of Being a WallflowerReinaldo Marcus Green
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
King RichardGary Fleder
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 JuryWolfgang Petersen
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In the Line of FireLes Mayfield
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Miracle on 34th StreetJohn Irvin
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hamburger HillAntoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Olympus Has FallenGregg Champion
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Cowboy WayGabe Ibáñez
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AutomataJay Roach
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 CampaignDanny Pang Phat
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 MessengersJames McTeigue
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SurvivorSix 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
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
as Father
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
King Richard
as Will Hodges
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
as Father
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Runaway Jury
as Jacob Wood (victim)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
as Father
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. Dylan McDermott 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.
Drama Legend
Awarded
9 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
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
as Father
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
In the Line of Fire
as Al D'Andrea
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
King Richard
as Will Hodges
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Clovehitch Killer
as Don
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
In the Line of Fire
as Al D'Andrea
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Cowboy Way
as John Stark
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Cowboy Way
as John Stark
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Cowboy Way
as John Stark
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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Built a career in the same territory: drama and fantasy
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: drama and thriller
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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