Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#4821
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Jonathan Loughran represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 27 years in, and Jonathan is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Jonathan Loughran appears in 29 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Jonathan. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 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 comedy, family, animation. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Kyle Newacheck, David Wachtenheim, Tyler Spindel and others, Jonathan Loughran 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.
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) as Trucker · Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) as Trucker · Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2011) as Trucker
Career snapshot
Ranked #4821 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
29
1998–2025
Career length
27 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.2
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.1
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
Most frequent director
Dennis Dugan
7 films together
Longest collaboration
7×
With Dennis Dugan
Most common genre
Comedy
24 titles
Average runtime
1h 52m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
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
6.5
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
6.7 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. Happy Gilmore 2, Leo, The Wrong Missy — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
6.7
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
6.7
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. Big Daddy, The Waterboy.
Most productive era
2000s
13 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 | 6.51 film | 7.11 film | — | — |
| Action | — | 7.06 films | 6.14 films | — |
| Thriller | — | 7.04 films | — | — |
| Comedy | 6.32 films | 6.39 films | 6.010 films | 6.73 films |
| Crime | — | 7.43 films | 7.02 films | — |
| Romance | — | 6.45 films | 6.82 films | 6.11 film |
| Horror | — | 7.01 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1998The Waterboy
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Lyle Robideaux.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
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
2025Happy Gilmore 2
The current state of the argument, as Crazy Eye Orderly.
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.
29 of 29 films
as Trucker
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
as Animal Handler (voice)
Directed by David Wachtenheim
as Wrong Number (voice)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
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
Trucker
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
Performance score7.9
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Trucker gives Jonathan Loughran a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Trucker
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
Performance score7.8
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Trucker is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Trucker
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2011)
Performance score7.6
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Trucker is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Animal Handler (voice)
Leo (2023)
Performance score7.2
Leo asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Animal Handler (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 Trucker
Start here. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 is the clearest statement of what Jonathan Loughran does — accessible, 111 minutes, and rated 8.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Jonathan 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.
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
A deliberate change of key after Kill Bill: Vol. 1 — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
A deliberate change of key after Punch-Drunk Love — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2011)
Same director as Kill Bill: Vol. 2, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Leo (2023)
A deliberate change of key after Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Dennis Dugan
Director
7 films together
Notably Just Go with It
Quentin Tarantino
Director
5 films together
Notably Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Peter Segal
Director
3 films together
Notably 50 First Dates
Frank Coraci
Director
3 films together
Notably Blended
Steven Brill
Director
2 films together
Notably Little Nicky
Kyle Newacheck
Director
2 films together
Notably Happy Gilmore 2
Paul Thomas Anderson
Director
1 film together
Notably Punch-Drunk Love
Fred Wolf
Director
1 film together
Notably The House Bunny
Adam Shankman
Director
1 film together
Notably Bedtime Stories
Genndy Tartakovsky
Director
1 film together
Notably Hotel Transylvania 2
Chris Columbus
Director
1 film together
Notably Pixels
Tyler Spindel
Director
1 film together
Notably The Wrong Missy
David Wachtenheim
Director
1 film together
Notably Leo
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Dennis Dugan
Director
7 films together · 6.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 7 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Just Go with ItQuentin Tarantino
Director
5 films together · 7.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 5 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Kill Bill: Vol. 1Peter Segal
Director
3 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
50 First DatesFrank Coraci
Director
3 films together · 6.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
BlendedKyle Newacheck
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
Happy Gilmore 2Steven Brill
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
Little NickyDavid Wachtenheim
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LeoPaul Thomas Anderson
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Punch-Drunk LoveGenndy Tartakovsky
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hotel Transylvania 2Adam Shankman
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bedtime StoriesTyler Spindel
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 Wrong MissyChris Columbus
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PixelsFred Wolf
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The House BunnySix 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
Kill Bill: Vol. 2
as Trucker
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Punch-Drunk Love
as Wrong Number (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
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
as Trucker
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Happy Gilmore 2
as Crazy Eye Orderly
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
as Trucker
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. Jonathan Loughran 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
27 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
24 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
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
as Trucker
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Kill Bill: Vol. 2
as Trucker
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Bedtime Stories
as Party Guest
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Murder Mystery
as Man at Train Station (uncredited)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
as Trucker
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Ridiculous 6
as Rifleman
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Punch-Drunk Love
as Wrong Number (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Kill Bill: Vol. 2
as Trucker
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
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Harvey Keitel
Works with the same directors — Quentin Tarantino
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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