Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1848
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Gil Birmingham 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.
Gil Birmingham appears in 10 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Gil. Wind River is the clearest case: a film rated 7.4 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 mystery, crime, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Neil Burger, Taylor Sheridan, David Mackenzie and others, Gil Birmingham 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.
Wind River (2017) as Martin Hanson · Hell or High Water (2016) as Alberto Parker · The Space Between Us (2017) as Shaman Neka
Career snapshot
Ranked #1848 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
10
2008–2023
Career length
15 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.4
Wind River
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.4
Wind River
Most frequent director
Gore Verbinski
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Gore Verbinski
Most common genre
Romance
5 titles
Average runtime
1h 59m
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
6.4
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
6.7 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Wind River, The Space Between Us, Hell or High Water — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.7
Across 7 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.7
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2000s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Twilight.
Most productive era
2010s
7 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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.32 films | 6.83 films | — |
| Action | — | 6.11 film | — |
| Thriller | — | 7.41 film | 6.41 film |
| Comedy | — | 6.91 film | — |
| Crime | — | 7.32 films | 6.41 film |
| Romance | 6.32 films | 6.53 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2008Twilight
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Billy Black.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2017Wind River
7.4 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
The current state of the argument, as Clark Bekkum.
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.
10 of 10 films
as Martin Hanson
Directed by Taylor Sheridan
as Alberto Parker
Directed by David Mackenzie
as Shaman Neka
Directed by Unknown
as Wounded Bird (voice)
Directed by Gore Verbinski
as Clark Bekkum
Directed by Neil Burger
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
Martin Hanson
Wind River (2017)
Performance score7.7
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Martin Hanson gives Gil Birmingham a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Alberto Parker
Hell or High Water (2016)
Performance score7.4
Hell or High Water asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Alberto Parker is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Shaman Neka
The Space Between Us (2017)
Performance score6.9
The Space Between Us asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Shaman Neka is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Wounded Bird (voice)
Rango (2011)
Performance score6.8
Rango asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Wounded Bird (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 Martin Hanson
Start here. Wind River is the clearest statement of what Gil Birmingham does — accessible, 107 minutes, and rated 7.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Gil 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.
Rango (2011)
A deliberate change of key after Wind River — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Hell or High Water (2016)
Keeps the western register of Rango but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Space Between Us (2017)
Keeps the drama register of Hell or High Water but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Marsh King's Daughter (2023)
A deliberate change of key after The Space Between Us — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Gore Verbinski
Director
2 films together
Notably Rango
Catherine Hardwicke
Director
1 film together
Notably Twilight
Chris Weitz
Director
1 film together
Notably The Twilight Saga: New Moon
David Slade
Director
1 film together
Notably The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Bill Condon
Director
1 film together
Notably The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1
David Mackenzie
Director
1 film together
Notably Hell or High Water
Taylor Sheridan
Director
1 film together
Notably Wind River
Neil Burger
Director
1 film together
Notably The Marsh King's Daughter
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Gore Verbinski
Director
2 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
RangoTaylor Sheridan
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wind RiverDavid Mackenzie
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hell or High WaterCatherine Hardwicke
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TwilightNeil Burger
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Marsh King's DaughterBill Condon
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 Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1David Slade
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 Twilight Saga: EclipseChris Weitz
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 Twilight Saga: New MoonSix 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
Wind River
as Martin Hanson
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 Space Between Us
as Shaman Neka
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Wind River
as Martin Hanson
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Space Between Us
as Shaman Neka
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Wind River
as Martin Hanson
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. Gil Birmingham 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.
Romance Legend
Awarded
5 catalogue titles in romance, 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
Wind River
as Martin Hanson
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Wind River
as Martin Hanson
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1
as Billy
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Wind River
as Martin Hanson
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Hell or High Water
as Alberto Parker
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Lone Ranger
as Red Knee
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Rango
as Wounded Bird (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
as Billy Black
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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