Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#23086
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Ellen Wong works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Ellen Wong appears in 7 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Ellen. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is the clearest case: a film rated 7.5 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, quiet performance, transformation. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for science fiction, comedy, crime. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with BenDavid Grabinski, Lina Roessler, Marshall Cook and others, Ellen Wong 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.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) as Knives Chau · Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice (2026) as Trudy · Good Boy (2020) as Annie
Career snapshot
Ranked #23086 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
7
2010–2026
Career length
16 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.5
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Most frequent director
BenDavid Grabinski
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With BenDavid Grabinski
Most common genre
Comedy
5 titles
Average runtime
1h 40m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.8
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
6.3
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
6.5 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. The Circle, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.5
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.5
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2010s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Circle, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
Most productive era
2020s
5 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 | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 5.51 film | 6.03 films |
| Action | 7.51 film | — |
| Thriller | 5.51 film | 6.51 film |
| Comedy | 7.51 film | 6.24 films |
| Crime | — | 6.71 film |
| Romance | 7.51 film | 6.31 film |
| Horror | — | 6.51 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2010Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Knives Chau. 7.5 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
2026Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice
The current state of the argument, as Trudy.
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.
7 of 7 films
as Knives Chau
Directed by Edgar Wright
as Trudy
Directed by BenDavid Grabinski
as Rachel Spence
Directed by Lina Roessler
as Madelyn McKay
Directed by Unknown
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
Knives Chau
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Knives Chau gives Ellen Wong a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Annie
Good Boy (2020)
Performance score7.0
Good Boy asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Annie is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Trudy
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice (2026)
Performance score6.6
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Trudy is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Rachel Spence
Best Sellers (2021)
Performance score6.5
Best Sellers asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Rachel Spence 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 Knives Chau
Start here. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is the clearest statement of what Ellen Wong does — accessible, 113 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Ellen 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.
Good Boy (2020)
Keeps the comedy register of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Christmas Setup (2020)
Same director as Good Boy, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Best Sellers (2021)
Keeps the drama register of The Christmas Setup but asks for a colder reading of it.
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice (2026)
Keeps the comedy register of Best Sellers but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Edgar Wright
Director
1 film together
Notably Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
James Ponsoldt
Director
1 film together
Notably The Circle
Marshall Cook
Director
1 film together
Notably Film Fest
Lina Roessler
Director
1 film together
Notably Best Sellers
BenDavid Grabinski
Director
1 film together
Notably Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Edgar Wright
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scott Pilgrim vs. the WorldBenDavid Grabinski
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mike & Nick & Nick & AliceLina Roessler
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Best SellersJames Ponsoldt
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The CircleMarshall Cook
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Film FestSix 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
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
as Knives Chau
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 Christmas Setup
as Madelyn McKay
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
as Knives Chau
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice
as Trudy
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
as Knives Chau
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. Ellen Wong 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.
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
5 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
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
as Knives Chau
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
as Knives Chau
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Christmas Setup
as Madelyn McKay
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Good Boy
as Annie
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
as Knives Chau
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
as Knives Chau
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Best Sellers
as Rachel Spence
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Christmas Setup
as Madelyn McKay
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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Matt Damon
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Ted Levine
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Leonardo DiCaprio
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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