Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#13540
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
James Duval represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 30 years in, and James is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
James Duval appears in 13 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without James. Donnie Darko is the clearest case: a film rated 7.9 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, action. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Gregg Araki, Tim Russ, Richard Kelly and others, James Duval 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.
Donnie Darko (2001) as Frank · Independence Day (1996) as Miguel · Go (1999) as Singh
Career snapshot
Ranked #13540 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
13
1996–2026
Career length
30 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.9
Donnie Darko
Average Nutevio score
5.0
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.8
Donnie Darko
Most frequent director
Gregg Araki
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Gregg Araki
Most common genre
Comedy
8 titles
Average runtime
1h 36m
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
2000s
7.2 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Donnie Darko, Gone in Sixty Seconds — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.2
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
7.1
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. Go, SLC Punk, Independence Day.
Most productive era
2020s
6 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 | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.91 film | 7.91 film | 1.01 film | — |
| Action | 7.11 film | 6.51 film | 1.01 film | — |
| Thriller | 7.01 film | 6.51 film | — | — |
| Comedy | 7.02 films | — | 5.61 film | 3.85 films |
| Crime | 7.01 film | 6.51 film | 1.01 film | — |
| Horror | — | — | — | 4.03 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1996Independence Day
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Miguel.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2001Donnie Darko
7.9 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
2026I Want Your Sex
The current state of the argument, as Justice of the Peace.
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.
13 of 13 films
as Frank
Directed by Richard Kelly
as Miguel
Directed by Roland Emmerich
as Singh
Directed by Doug Liman
as John the Mod
Directed by James Merendino
as Buck
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
Frank
Donnie Darko (2001)
Performance score8.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Frank gives James Duval a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Miguel
Independence Day (1996)
Performance score7.0
Independence Day asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Miguel is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Singh
Go (1999)
Performance score6.9
Go asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Singh is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
John the Mod
SLC Punk (1998)
Performance score6.8
SLC Punk asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. John the Mod 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 Frank
Start here. Donnie Darko is the clearest statement of what James Duval does — accessible, 114 minutes, and rated 7.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet James 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.
Independence Day (1996)
A deliberate change of key after Donnie Darko — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
SLC Punk (1998)
A deliberate change of key after Independence Day — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Go (1999)
Keeps the comedy register of SLC Punk but asks for a colder reading of it.
Skate to Hell (2026)
Keeps the comedy register of Go but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Gregg Araki
Director
2 films together
Notably I Want Your Sex
Roland Emmerich
Director
1 film together
Notably Independence Day
James Merendino
Director
1 film together
Notably SLC Punk
Doug Liman
Director
1 film together
Notably Go
Richard Kelly
Director
1 film together
Notably Donnie Darko
Tim Russ
Director
1 film together
Notably Junkie
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Gregg Araki
Director
2 films together · 5.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
I Want Your SexRichard Kelly
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Donnie DarkoRoland Emmerich
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Independence DayDoug Liman
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GoJames Merendino
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SLC PunkTim Russ
Director
1 film together · 1.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
JunkieSix 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
Donnie Darko
as Frank
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
SLC Punk
as John the Mod
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Donnie Darko
as Frank
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Independence Day
as Miguel
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Donnie Darko
as Frank
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. James Duval 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
30 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
8 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
Donnie Darko
as Frank
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Donnie Darko
as Frank
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
SLC Punk
as John the Mod
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Donnie Darko
as Frank
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Independence Day
as Miguel
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Independence Day
as Miguel
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
SLC Punk
as John the Mod
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Independence Day
as Miguel
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Elliot Page
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Christian Bale
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Have your say
Community
Which James Duval performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
Join the conversation
Reference
Continue exploring
Trending performers
Directors they work with
Collections to read next
