Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#487
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Kerry 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.
Kerry Washington appears in 27 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Kerry. Django Unchained is the clearest case: a film rated 8.4 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 mystery, comedy, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Rian Johnson, Joe Carnahan, Teyana Taylor and others, Kerry 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.
Django Unchained (2012) as Broomhilda von Shaft · Escape Room (2025) · The Six Triple Eight (2024) as Charity Adams
Career snapshot
Ranked #487 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
27
2002–2025
Career length
23 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.4
Django Unchained
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.2
Escape Room
Most frequent director
Tim Story
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Tim Story
Most common genre
Drama
15 titles
Average runtime
2h 4m
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
6.9 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Shadow Force, Escape Room — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
6.9
Across 9 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
6.9
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. Mother and Child, Lakeview Terrace, Miracle at St. Anna.
Most productive era
2000s
12 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 | 6.48 films | 6.76 films | 7.61 film |
| Action | 6.04 films | — | 6.41 film |
| Thriller | 6.14 films | — | 6.82 films |
| Comedy | 5.93 films | 6.02 films | 6.94 films |
| Crime | 6.23 films | — | — |
| Romance | 6.03 films | — | 6.11 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2002Bad Company
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Julie.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2012Django Unchained
8.4 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 Self.
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.
27 of 27 films
as Broomhilda von Shaft
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
as Charity Adams
Directed by Tyler Perry
as Anita Hill
Directed by Rick Famuyiwa
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
Broomhilda von Shaft
Django Unchained (2012)
Performance score8.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Broomhilda von Shaft gives Kerry Washington a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Charity Adams
The Six Triple Eight (2024)
Performance score8.1
The Six Triple Eight asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Charity Adams is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Escape Room
Escape Room (2025)
Performance score7.9
Escape Room asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. The role is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Anita Hill
Confirmation (2016)
Performance score7.5
Confirmation asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Anita Hill 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 Broomhilda von Shaft
Start here. Django Unchained is the clearest statement of what Kerry Washington does — accessible, 165 minutes, and rated 8.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Kerry 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 Last King of Scotland (2006)
Keeps the drama register of Django Unchained but asks for a colder reading of it.
Confirmation (2016)
Keeps the drama register of The Last King of Scotland but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Six Triple Eight (2024)
Keeps the drama register of Confirmation but asks for a colder reading of it.
Escape Room (2025)
A deliberate change of key after The Six Triple Eight — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Tim Story
Director
2 films together
Notably Fantastic Four
Joel Schumacher
Director
1 film together
Notably Bad Company
Robert Benton
Director
1 film together
Notably The Human Stain
Doug Liman
Director
1 film together
Notably Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Kevin Macdonald
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last King of Scotland
Karen Moncrieff
Director
1 film together
Notably The Dead Girl
Chris Rock
Director
1 film together
Notably I Think I Love My Wife
Spike Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably Miracle at St. Anna
Neil LaBute
Director
1 film together
Notably Lakeview Terrace
Rodrigo García
Director
1 film together
Notably Mother and Child
Brian Robbins
Director
1 film together
Notably A Thousand Words
Quentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together
Notably Django Unchained
Rick Famuyiwa
Director
1 film together
Notably Confirmation
Brian Fee
Director
1 film together
Notably Cars 3
Kenny Leon
Director
1 film together
Notably American Son
Ryan Murphy
Director
1 film together
Notably The Prom
Paul Feig
Director
1 film together
Notably The School for Good and Evil
Tyler Perry
Director
1 film together
Notably The Six Triple Eight
Beth McCarthy-Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably Netflix Tudum 2025
Teyana Taylor
Director
1 film together
Notably Escape Room
Joe Carnahan
Director
1 film together
Notably Shadow Force
Rian Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Tim Story
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
Fantastic FourQuentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together · 8.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Django UnchainedTeyana Taylor
Director
1 film together · 8.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Escape RoomTyler Perry
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 Six Triple EightKevin Macdonald
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Last King of ScotlandRian Johnson
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out MysteryPaul Feig
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 School for Good and EvilBrian Fee
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cars 3Rick Famuyiwa
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ConfirmationDoug Liman
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mr. & Mrs. SmithRodrigo García
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mother and ChildJoe Carnahan
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Shadow ForceRyan Murphy
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 PromBrian Robbins
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Thousand WordsSpike Lee
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Miracle at St. AnnaKenny Leon
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
American SonNeil 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 TerraceKaren Moncrieff
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Dead GirlRobert Benton
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Human StainBeth McCarthy-Miller
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Netflix Tudum 2025Joel Schumacher
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bad CompanyChris Rock
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
I Think I Love My WifeSix 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
Django Unchained
as Broomhilda von Shaft
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Cars 3
as Natalie Certain (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
Django Unchained
as Broomhilda von Shaft
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
One World: Together at Home
as Self
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Django Unchained
as Broomhilda von Shaft
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. Kerry 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.
Career Achievement
Awarded
23 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
15 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
Django Unchained
as Broomhilda von Shaft
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
as Vera Draven, Esq.
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Cars 3
as Natalie Certain (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
as Vera Draven, Esq.
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Django Unchained
as Broomhilda von Shaft
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Bad Company
as Julie
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Cars 3
as Natalie Certain (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Django Unchained
as Broomhilda von Shaft
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
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
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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