Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3401
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Fred Melamed represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 40 years in, and Fred is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Fred Melamed appears in 21 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Fred. Hannah and Her Sisters 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, 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, horror, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with David Wain, Wendy McColm, Susanna Fogel and others, Fred Melamed 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.
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) as Dr. Grey · The Mission (1986) as Don Cabeza (voice) (uncredited) · Shiva Baby (2021) as Joel
Career snapshot
Ranked #3401 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
21
1986–2026
Career length
40 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
Hannah and Her Sisters
Average Nutevio score
5.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.5
Hannah and Her Sisters
Most frequent director
Susanna Fogel
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Susanna Fogel
Most common genre
Comedy
14 titles
Average runtime
1h 43m
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
6.5
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
1980s
7.3 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. The Mission, Hannah and Her Sisters — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.3
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.4
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. The Mission, Hannah and Her Sisters.
Most productive era
2010s
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 | 1980s | 1990s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.32 films | 7.01 film | 6.34 films | 6.43 films |
| Action | 7.21 film | — | 6.52 films | — |
| Thriller | — | — | 6.61 film | 3.03 films |
| Comedy | 7.51 film | 7.01 film | 5.96 films | 5.06 films |
| Crime | — | — | 6.32 films | — |
| Romance | — | 7.01 film | 6.32 films | 6.12 films |
| Horror | — | — | 6.91 film | 2.92 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1986The Mission
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Don Cabeza (voice) (uncredited).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
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
2026Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass
The current state of the argument, as Frank the Mailman.
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.
21 of 21 films
as Don Cabeza (voice) (uncredited)
Directed by Roland Joffé
as Observatory (voice)
Directed by Morten Tyldum
as Mel (uncredited)
Directed by Woody Allen
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
Dr. Grey
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Performance score7.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Dr. Grey gives Fred Melamed a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Joel
Shiva Baby (2021)
Performance score7.2
Shiva Baby asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Joel is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Don Cabeza (voice) (uncredited)
The Mission (1986)
Performance score7.1
The Mission asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Don Cabeza (voice) (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Observatory (voice)
Passengers (2016)
Performance score6.9
Passengers asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Observatory (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 Dr. Grey
Start here. Hannah and Her Sisters is the clearest statement of what Fred Melamed does — accessible, 107 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Fred 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.
The Mission (1986)
Keeps the drama register of Hannah and Her Sisters but asks for a colder reading of it.
Husbands and Wives (1992)
Keeps the drama register of The Mission but asks for a colder reading of it.
Passengers (2016)
Keeps the romance register of Husbands and Wives but asks for a colder reading of it.
Shiva Baby (2021)
Keeps the drama register of Passengers but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Woody Allen
Director
2 films together
Notably Hannah and Her Sisters
Susanna Fogel
Director
2 films together
Notably The Spy Who Dumped Me
Roland Joffé
Director
1 film together
Notably The Mission
Larry Charles
Director
1 film together
Notably The Dictator
Tom Vaughan
Director
1 film together
Notably Some Kind of Beautiful
Ross Katz
Director
1 film together
Notably Adult Beginners
Morten Tyldum
Director
1 film together
Notably Passengers
Joel Coen
Director
1 film together
Notably Hail, Caesar!
Keith Thomas
Director
1 film together
Notably The Vigil
Wendy McColm
Director
1 film together
Notably Fuzzy Head
David Wain
Director
1 film together
Notably Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Woody Allen
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
Hannah and Her SistersSusanna Fogel
Director
2 films together · 6.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Spy Who Dumped MeRoland Joffé
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 MissionMorten Tyldum
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PassengersLarry Charles
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The DictatorJoel Coen
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hail, Caesar!Keith Thomas
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 VigilTom Vaughan
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Some Kind of BeautifulRoss Katz
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Adult BeginnersDavid Wain
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex PassWendy McColm
Director
1 film together · 3.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fuzzy HeadSix 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
Hannah and Her Sisters
as Dr. Grey
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Husbands and Wives
as Mel (uncredited)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Hannah and Her Sisters
as Dr. Grey
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Hannah and Her Sisters
as Dr. Grey
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Hannah and Her Sisters
as Dr. Grey
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. Fred Melamed 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
40 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
14 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
Hannah and Her Sisters
as Dr. Grey
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Dragged Across Concrete
as Mr. Edmington
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Husbands and Wives
as Mel (uncredited)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Vigil
as Dr. Kohlberg
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Mission
as Don Cabeza (voice) (uncredited)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Mission
as Don Cabeza (voice) (uncredited)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Lying and Stealing
as Dimitri
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Peak Season
as George
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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