Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#20182
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Kasi Lemmons represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 35 years in, and Kasi is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Kasi Lemmons appears in 7 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Kasi. The Silence of the Lambs is the clearest case: a film rated 9.2 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are quiet performance, transformation, versatility. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for drama, thriller, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Vondie Curtis-Hall, John Woo, Bernard Rose and others, Kasi Lemmons 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 Silence of the Lambs (1991) as Ardelia Mapp · The Silence of the Lambs (1991) as Ardelia Mapp · Disconnect (2013) as Roberta Washington
Career snapshot
Ranked #20182 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
7
1991–2026
Career length
35 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.2
The Silence of the Lambs
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.6
The Silence of the Lambs
Most frequent director
Jonathan Demme
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Jonathan Demme
Most common genre
Drama
5 titles
Average runtime
1h 45m
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
6.9
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
1990s
7.5 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Gridlock'd, Hard Target, Candyman — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.5
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
7.3
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. Gridlock'd, Hard Target, Candyman.
Most productive era
1990s
5 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 | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.33 films | 7.11 film | 0.01 film |
| Action | 6.51 film | — | — |
| Thriller | 7.74 films | 7.11 film | — |
| Comedy | 6.61 film | — | — |
| Crime | 7.74 films | — | — |
| Horror | 7.92 films | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Ardelia Mapp. The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.2 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 Ramona.
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.
7 of 7 films
as Ardelia Mapp
Directed by Jonathan Demme
as Ardelia Mapp
Directed by Jonathan Demme
as Roberta Washington
Directed by Unknown
as Bernadette Walsh
Directed by Bernard Rose
as Madonna
Directed by Vondie Curtis-Hall
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 11 of 11 titles · 13 total credits · active 1991–2026
The Projectionist
2026 · Ramona
Hollywood Black
2024 · TV · Self
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody
2022 · Director
Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker
2020 · TV · Director · Executive Producer
Harriet
2019 · Director · Screenplay
Marvel's Luke Cage
2016 · TV · Director
Disconnect
2013 · Roberta Washington
Gridlock'd
1997 · Madonna
Hard Target
1993 · Det. Marie Mitchell
Candyman
1992 · Bernadette Walsh
The Silence of the Lambs
1991 · Ardelia Mapp
The defining work
#1
Ardelia Mapp
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Performance score8.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Ardelia Mapp gives Kasi Lemmons a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Ardelia Mapp
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Performance score8.2
The Silence of the Lambs asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ardelia Mapp is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Roberta Washington
Disconnect (2013)
Performance score7.0
Disconnect asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Roberta Washington is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Bernadette Walsh
Candyman (1992)
Performance score6.9
Candyman asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bernadette Walsh 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 Ardelia Mapp
Start here. The Silence of the Lambs is the clearest statement of what Kasi Lemmons does — accessible, 118 minutes, and rated 9.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Kasi 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 Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Same director as The Silence of the Lambs, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Candyman (1992)
Keeps the drama register of The Silence of the Lambs but asks for a colder reading of it.
Gridlock'd (1997)
Keeps the drama register of Candyman but asks for a colder reading of it.
Disconnect (2013)
Keeps the drama register of Gridlock'd but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Jonathan Demme
Director
2 films together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Bernard Rose
Director
1 film together
Notably Candyman
John Woo
Director
1 film together
Notably Hard Target
Vondie Curtis-Hall
Director
1 film together
Notably Gridlock'd
Jodie Foster
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Anthony Hopkins
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Scott Glenn
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Ted Levine
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Anthony Heald
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Brooke Smith
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Diane Baker
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Frankie Faison
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Tracey Walter
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Charles Napier
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Danny Darst
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Alex Coleman
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Jonathan Demme
Director
2 films together · 8.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Silence of the LambsBernard Rose
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CandymanVondie Curtis-Hall
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gridlock'dJohn Woo
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hard TargetSix 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
The Silence of the Lambs
as Ardelia Mapp
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Disconnect
as Roberta Washington
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 Silence of the Lambs
as Ardelia Mapp
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Gridlock'd
as Madonna
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Silence of the Lambs
as Ardelia Mapp
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. Kasi Lemmons 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 | 8.3 | 7.9 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #133 of 681 | #486 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | Unknown |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | Unknown |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | Unknown |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.2 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Thriller, Crime, Horror | Crime, Thriller, Action, Horror |
| Directors | Jonathan Demme | Michael Mann, Jonathan Demme |
| Performance DNA | Intensity, Screen presence, Villain presence | Intensity, Villain presence, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 1991–1991 | 1991–1995 |
| Most iconic role | Ardelia Mapp — The Silence of the Lambs | Jame Gumb — The Silence of the Lambs |
| Most rewatchable film | The Silence of the Lambs | The Silence of the Lambs |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 2 catalogue films |
Films together
The Silence of the Lambs
Shared directors
jonathan-demme
Shared collections
Best Psychological Thrillers, Best Horror Movies, Horror Movies, Thriller Movies, Crime Movies
Collaborators in common
Jonathan Demme · Jodie Foster · Anthony Hopkins · Scott Glenn · Anthony Heald · Brooke Smith · Diane Baker · Frankie Faison
Kasi Lemmons takes it on our scale, largely on the strength of the catalogue's rating of the films Kasi chooses.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
35 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 Silence of the Lambs
as Ardelia Mapp
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Silence of the Lambs
as Ardelia Mapp
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Disconnect
as Roberta Washington
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Silence of the Lambs
as Ardelia Mapp
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Silence of the Lambs
as Ardelia Mapp
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Hard Target
as Det. Marie Mitchell
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Gridlock'd
as Madonna
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Silence of the Lambs
as Ardelia Mapp
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 5 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
genre
Best Psychological Thrillers
Features The Silence of the Lambs at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Best Horror Movies
Features The Silence of the Lambs at #2
Read the collectiongenre
Horror Movies
Features The Silence of the Lambs at #2
Read the collectiongenre
Thriller Movies
Features The Silence of the Lambs at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Crime Movies
Features The Silence of the Lambs
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
Ted Levine
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: drama and thriller
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and thriller
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: drama and thriller
Leonardo DiCaprio
Built a career in the same territory: thriller and action
Have your say
Community
Which Kasi Lemmons 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
