Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#32570
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Jermaine Washington 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.
Jermaine Washington appears in 12 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Jermaine. Only the Brave 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 action, thriller, mystery. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Paul Greengrass, Max Martini, George Gallo and others, Jermaine Washington 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.
Only the Brave (2017) as Bouncer #1 · Felon (2008) as Large Black Inmate · The Lost Bus (2025) as Father
Career snapshot
Ranked #32570 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
12
2008–2026
Career length
18 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
Only the Brave
Average Nutevio score
5.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.5
Only the Brave
Most frequent director
Paul Greengrass
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Paul Greengrass
Most common genre
Thriller
9 titles
Average runtime
1h 48m
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
6.2
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
7.1 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Felon — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.1
Across 1 catalogue film 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
2000s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Felon.
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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.11 film | 7.51 film | 5.72 films |
| Action | 7.11 film | 6.42 films | 2.12 films |
| Thriller | 7.11 film | 6.54 films | 4.34 films |
| Comedy | — | — | 5.02 films |
| Crime | 7.11 film | 6.11 film | 5.02 films |
| Horror | — | — | 5.02 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2008Felon
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Large Black Inmate.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2017Only the Brave
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
2026He Bled Neon
The current state of the argument, as Dentist Guard.
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.
12 of 12 films
as Bouncer #1
Directed by Joseph Kosinski
as Large Black Inmate
Directed by Ric Roman Waugh
as Father
Directed by Paul Greengrass
as Head Bowling Alley Employee
Directed by Stephen Sommers
as Town Thug
Directed by Albert Hughes
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
Bouncer #1
Only the Brave (2017)
Performance score7.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Bouncer #1 gives Jermaine Washington a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Large Black Inmate
Felon (2008)
Performance score7.0
Felon asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Large Black Inmate is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Father
The Lost Bus (2025)
Performance score6.9
The Lost Bus asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Father is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Head Bowling Alley Employee
Odd Thomas (2013)
Performance score6.9
Odd Thomas asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Head Bowling Alley Employee 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 Bouncer #1
Start here. Only the Brave is the clearest statement of what Jermaine Washington does — accessible, 133 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Jermaine 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.
Felon (2008)
Keeps the drama register of Only the Brave but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Book of Eli (2010)
Keeps the action register of Felon but asks for a colder reading of it.
Odd Thomas (2013)
Keeps the thriller register of The Book of Eli but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Lost Bus (2025)
Keeps the thriller register of Odd Thomas but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Ric Roman Waugh
Director
1 film together
Notably Felon
Albert Hughes
Director
1 film together
Notably The Book of Eli
Kim Jee-woon
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last Stand
Stephen Sommers
Director
1 film together
Notably Odd Thomas
Joseph Kosinski
Director
1 film together
Notably Only the Brave
George Gallo
Director
1 film together
Notably The Comeback Trail
Max Martini
Director
1 film together
Notably The Manson Brothers: Midnight Zombie Massacre
Paul Greengrass
Director
1 film together
Notably The Lost Bus
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Joseph Kosinski
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Only the BraveRic Roman Waugh
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FelonPaul Greengrass
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Lost BusStephen Sommers
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Odd ThomasAlbert Hughes
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Book of EliKim Jee-woon
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Last StandGeorge Gallo
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 Comeback TrailMax Martini
Director
1 film together · 4.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Manson Brothers: Midnight Zombie MassacreSix 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
Only the Brave
as Bouncer #1
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Only the Brave
as Bouncer #1
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Only the Brave
as Bouncer #1
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Lost Bus
as Father
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Only the Brave
as Bouncer #1
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. Jermaine Washington 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.
Thriller Legend
Awarded
9 catalogue titles in thriller, 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
Odd Thomas
as Head Bowling Alley Employee
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Felon
as Large Black Inmate
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Only the Brave
as Bouncer #1
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Odd Thomas
as Head Bowling Alley Employee
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Felon
as Large Black Inmate
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Felon
as Large Black Inmate
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Only the Brave
as Bouncer #1
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Odd Thomas
as Head Bowling Alley Employee
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Matt Damon
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Reference
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