Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#530
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Jay Hernandez represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 26 years in, and Jay is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Jay Hernandez appears in 21 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Jay. Toy Story 5 is the clearest case: a film rated 8.2 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 horror, animation, family. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Andrew Stanton, Josh Cooley, David Ayer and others, Jay Hernandez 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.
Toy Story 5 (2026) as Bonnie’s Dad (voice) · Toy Story 4 (2019) as Bonnie’s Dad (voice) · Toy Story 5 (2026) as Bonnie’s Dad (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #530 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
21
2001–2027
Career length
26 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.2
Toy Story 5
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.5
Toy Story 5
Most frequent director
Andrew Stanton
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Andrew Stanton
Most common genre
Drama
9 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
6.4
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
6.4 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Toy Story 4, Bright, A Bad Moms Christmas — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.4
Across 7 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.4
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. Lakeview Terrace, Quarantine, Live!.
Most productive era
2000s
10 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 | 6.36 films | 6.22 films | 7.11 film |
| Action | 6.82 films | 6.13 films | — |
| Thriller | 6.27 films | 6.32 films | — |
| Comedy | — | 6.74 films | 7.82 films |
| Crime | 6.01 film | 6.31 film | — |
| Romance | 6.61 film | 6.11 film | — |
| Horror | 6.24 films | — | 0.01 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2001Joy Ride
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Marine.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2026Toy Story 5
8.2 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 Diego.
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 Bonnie’s Dad (voice)
Directed by Andrew Stanton
as JB Peña
Directed by Unknown
as Bonnie’s Dad (voice)
Directed by Josh Cooley
as Bonnie’s Dad (voice)
Directed by Andrew Stanton
as Carlos Nuñez
Directed by John Stockwell
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 24 of 24 titles · 25 total credits · active 2001–2027
The Revenge of La Llorona
2027 · Diego
Toy Story 5
2026 · Bonnie’s Dad (voice)
The Long Game
2024 · JB Peña
You're Not Alone
2020 · Executive Producer
Beneath Us
2020 · Executive Producer
Toy Story 4
2019 · Bonnie’s Dad (voice)
Magnum P.I.
2018 · TV · Thomas Magnum · Director
Bright
2017 · Rodriguez
A Bad Moms Christmas
2017 · Jessie Harkness
Suicide Squad
2016 · Diablo
Bad Moms
2016 · Jessie Harkness
LOL
2012 · James
Scandal
2012 · TV · Curtis Pryce
Takers
2010 · Eddie Hatcher
Lakeview Terrace
2008 · Javier Villareal
Quarantine
2008 · Jake
Live!
2007 · Pablo
Grindhouse
2007 · Boddy (segment "Thanksgiving") (uncredited)
Hostel: Part II
2007 · Paxton
World Trade Center
2006 · Dominick Pezzulo
Hostel
2006 · Paxton
Ladder 49
2004 · Keith Perez
Joy Ride
2001 · Marine
Crazy/Beautiful
2001 · Carlos Nuñez
The defining work
#1
Bonnie’s Dad (voice)
Toy Story 5 (2026)
Performance score7.9
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Bonnie’s Dad (voice) gives Jay Hernandez a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
JB Peña
The Long Game (2024)
Performance score7.7
The Long Game asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. JB Peña is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Bonnie’s Dad (voice)
Toy Story 4 (2019)
Performance score7.5
Toy Story 4 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bonnie’s Dad (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Bonnie’s Dad (voice)
Toy Story 5 (2026)
Performance score7.2
Toy Story 5 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bonnie’s Dad (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 Bonnie’s Dad (voice)
Start here. Toy Story 5 is the clearest statement of what Jay Hernandez does — accessible, 100 minutes, and rated 8.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Jay 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.
Crazy/Beautiful (2001)
A deliberate change of key after Toy Story 5 — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Toy Story 4 (2019)
A deliberate change of key after Crazy/Beautiful — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Long Game (2024)
Keeps the family register of Toy Story 4 but asks for a colder reading of it.
Toy Story 5 (2026)
Keeps the family register of The Long Game but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Eli Roth
Director
2 films together
Notably Hostel
Jon Lucas
Director
2 films together
Notably Bad Moms
David Ayer
Director
2 films together
Notably Bright
Andrew Stanton
Director
2 films together
Notably Toy Story 5
John Stockwell
Director
1 film together
Notably Crazy/Beautiful
John Dahl
Director
1 film together
Notably Joy Ride
Oliver Stone
Director
1 film together
Notably World Trade Center
Quentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together
Notably Grindhouse
John Erick Dowdle
Director
1 film together
Notably Quarantine
Neil LaBute
Director
1 film together
Notably Lakeview Terrace
Josh Cooley
Director
1 film together
Notably Toy Story 4
Tom Hanks
Actor
1 film together
Notably Toy Story 5
Tim Allen
Actor
1 film together
Notably Toy Story 5
Joan Cusack
Actor
1 film together
Notably Toy Story 5
Greta Lee
Actor
1 film together
Notably Toy Story 5
Conan O'Brien
Actor
1 film together
Notably Toy Story 5
Craig Robinson
Actor
1 film together
Notably Toy Story 5
Shelby Rabara
Actor
1 film together
Notably Toy Story 5
Tony Hale
Actor
1 film together
Notably Toy Story 5
Scarlett Spears
Actor
1 film together
Notably Toy Story 5
Lori Alan
Actor
1 film together
Notably Toy Story 5
Bonnie Hunt
Actor
1 film together
Notably Toy Story 5
Kristen Schaal
Actor
1 film together
Notably Toy Story 5
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Andrew Stanton
Director
2 films together · 7.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Toy Story 5Jon Lucas
Director
2 films together · 6.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Bad MomsDavid Ayer
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
BrightEli Roth
Director
2 films together · 6.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
HostelJosh Cooley
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Toy Story 4Quentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GrindhouseJohn Dahl
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Joy RideJohn Stockwell
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Crazy/BeautifulOliver Stone
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
World Trade CenterNeil LaBute
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lakeview TerraceJohn Erick Dowdle
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
QuarantineSix 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
Toy Story 5
as Bonnie’s Dad (voice)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Toy Story 5
as Bonnie’s Dad (voice)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Toy Story 5
as Bonnie’s Dad (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Grindhouse
as Boddy (segment "Thanksgiving") (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Toy Story 5
as Bonnie’s Dad (voice)
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. Jay Hernandez 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 | 7.5 | 8.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #636 of 681 | #9 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 2 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 6 |
| Average Nutevio score | 8.2 | 8.6 |
| Genres | Animation, Family, Comedy | Animation, Family, Comedy, Drama |
| Directors | Andrew Stanton | Andrew Stanton, Frank Darabont |
| Performance DNA | Emotional range, Comedy, Quiet performance | Emotional range, Quiet performance, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 2026–2026 | 1999–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Bonnie’s Dad (voice) — Toy Story 5 | Paul Edgecomb — The Green Mile |
| Most rewatchable film | Toy Story 5 | The Green Mile |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 2 catalogue films |
Films together
Toy Story 5
Shared directors
andrew-stanton
Shared collections
Animation Movies, Comedy Movies
Collaborators in common
Andrew Stanton · Tim Allen · Joan Cusack · Greta Lee · Conan O'Brien · Craig Robinson · Shelby Rabara · Tony Hale
Tom Hanks 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
26 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
9 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
Toy Story 5
as Bonnie’s Dad (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Grindhouse
as Boddy (segment "Thanksgiving") (uncredited)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
World Trade Center
as Dominick Pezzulo
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Joy Ride
as Marine
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Toy Story 5
as Bonnie’s Dad (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Suicide Squad
as Diablo
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
LOL
as James
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Toy Story 5
as Bonnie’s Dad (voice)
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 2 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
From the magazine
If you like this performer
Tom Hanks
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Bonnie Hunt
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Harvey Keitel
Works with the same directors — Quentin Tarantino
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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