Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2632
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Jarreth J. Merz 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.
Jarreth J. Merz appears in 6 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Jarreth. The Odyssey is the clearest case: a film rated 8.9 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, drama. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for adventure, drama, fantasy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Christopher Nolan, Luc Besson, Timur Bekmambetov and others, Jarreth J. Merz 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 Odyssey (2026) as Leodes · The Odyssey (2026) as Leodes · Dogman (2023) as Walter Stage Manager
Career snapshot
Ranked #2632 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
6
2004–2026
Career length
22 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.9
The Odyssey
Average Nutevio score
7.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.4
The Odyssey
Most frequent director
Christopher Nolan
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Christopher Nolan
Most common genre
Drama
5 titles
Average runtime
2h 12m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.2
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
7.0
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
7.8 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. The Odyssey, The Odyssey, Dogman — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
7.8
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
7.7
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 Passion of the Christ.
Most productive era
2020s
4 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 | 7.61 film | 5.81 film | 7.73 films |
| Action | — | 5.81 film | 7.82 films |
| Comedy | — | — | 6.51 film |
| Crime | — | — | 7.61 film |
| Romance | — | — | 6.51 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Simon of Cyrene.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2026The Odyssey
8.9 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
2026The Odyssey
The current state of the argument, as Leodes.
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.
6 of 6 films
as Leodes
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Leodes
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Walter Stage Manager
Directed by Luc Besson
as Price
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.
Showing 6 of 6 titles · 6 total credits · active 2004–2026
The defining work
#1
Leodes
The Odyssey (2026)
Performance score8.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Leodes gives Jarreth J. Merz a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Leodes
The Odyssey (2026)
Performance score7.8
The Odyssey asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Leodes is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Walter Stage Manager
Dogman (2023)
Performance score7.4
Dogman asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Walter Stage Manager is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Simon of Cyrene
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
Performance score7.4
The Passion of the Christ asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Simon of Cyrene 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 Leodes
Start here. The Odyssey is the clearest statement of what Jarreth J. Merz does — accessible, 165 minutes, and rated 8.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Jarreth 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 Passion of the Christ (2004)
Keeps the drama register of The Odyssey but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Royal Nanny (2022)
Keeps the drama register of The Passion of the Christ but asks for a colder reading of it.
Dogman (2023)
Keeps the drama register of The Royal Nanny but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Odyssey (2026)
Keeps the action register of Dogman but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together
Notably The Odyssey
Mel Gibson
Director
1 film together
Notably The Passion of the Christ
Timur Bekmambetov
Director
1 film together
Notably Ben-Hur
Luc Besson
Director
1 film together
Notably Dogman
Anne Hathaway
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Matt Damon
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Elliot Page
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Jamie Harris
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Tom Holland
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Robert Pattinson
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Himesh Patel
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
John Leguizamo
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Charlize Theron
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Travis Scott
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Corey Hawkins
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Niko Nicotera
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together · 8.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The OdysseyLuc Besson
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DogmanMel Gibson
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Passion of the ChristTimur Bekmambetov
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ben-HurSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Performer
Jarreth J. Merz
Where this journey starts
Director
Christopher Nolan
2 collaborations, averaging 8.4
Film
The Odyssey
Their highest-rated film together (2026)
Performer
Matt Damon
Shares the frame in The Odyssey
Film
Interstellar
Where Matt goes next, and where you can too
Performer
Michael Caine
Three steps from where you began
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
The Odyssey
as Leodes
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 Odyssey
as Leodes
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 Odyssey
as Leodes
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Passion of the Christ
as Simon of Cyrene
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Odyssey
as Leodes
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. Jarreth J. Merz has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 7.9 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #561 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 8.9 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Christopher Nolan | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Emotional range, Drama, Screen presence | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 2026–2026 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Leodes — The Odyssey | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | The Odyssey | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
The Odyssey
Shared directors
Christopher Nolan
Shared collections
Fantasy Movies, Adventure Movies, Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked, Drama Movies
Collaborators in common
Christopher Nolan · Anne Hathaway
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
22 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
5 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 Odyssey
as Leodes
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Dogman
as Walter Stage Manager
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Odyssey
as Leodes
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Odyssey
as Leodes
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Odyssey
as Leodes
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Odyssey
as Leodes
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Royal Nanny
as Price
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Odyssey
as Leodes
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 4 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
From the magazine
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Michael Caine
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
David Krumholtz
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Cillian Murphy
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Morgan Freeman
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Elliot Page
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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