Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#11350
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Kevin O'Grady 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.
Kevin O'Grady appears in 7 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Kevin. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the clearest case: a film rated 7.4 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 romance, comedy, tv movie. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Michael Robison, Peter Benson, David Winning and others, Kevin O'Grady 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.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) as Animal Control Officer #1 · Christmas Above the Clouds (2025) as Paul · Adventures in Babysitting (2016) as Barry Cooper
Career snapshot
Ranked #11350 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
7
2011–2026
Career length
15 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.4
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.3
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Most frequent director
Michael Robison
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Michael Robison
Most common genre
Romance
4 titles
Average runtime
1h 32m
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
6.4
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
6.6 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. A Summer Romance, Drone, Adventures in Babysitting — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.6
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.6
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2010s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. A Summer Romance, Drone, Adventures in Babysitting.
Most productive era
2010s
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 | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.41 film | — |
| Action | 6.82 films | — |
| Thriller | 6.32 films | — |
| Comedy | 6.83 films | 7.21 film |
| Romance | 6.62 films | 6.42 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2011Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Animal Control Officer #1. 7.4 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 Pete Whitaker.
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 Animal Control Officer #1
Directed by Rupert Wyatt
as Paul
Directed by Peter Benson
as Buck Roberts
Directed by David Winning
as Barry Cooper
Directed by Unknown
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Animal Control Officer #1
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
Performance score7.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Animal Control Officer #1 gives Kevin O'Grady a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Paul
Christmas Above the Clouds (2025)
Performance score7.1
Christmas Above the Clouds asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Paul is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Buck Roberts
A Summer Romance (2019)
Performance score7.1
A Summer Romance asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Buck Roberts is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Barry Cooper
Adventures in Babysitting (2016)
Performance score7.1
Adventures in Babysitting asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Barry Cooper 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 Animal Control Officer #1
Start here. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the clearest statement of what Kevin O'Grady does — accessible, 105 minutes, and rated 7.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Kevin 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.
Adventures in Babysitting (2016)
A deliberate change of key after Rise of the Planet of the Apes — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
A Summer Romance (2019)
Keeps the comedy register of Adventures in Babysitting but asks for a colder reading of it.
Christmas Above the Clouds (2025)
Keeps the romance register of A Summer Romance but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Stars Between Us (2026)
Keeps the romance register of Christmas Above the Clouds but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Rupert Wyatt
Director
1 film together
Notably Rise of the Planet of the Apes
McG
Director
1 film together
Notably This Means War
David Winning
Director
1 film together
Notably A Summer Romance
Peter Benson
Director
1 film together
Notably Christmas Above the Clouds
Michael Robison
Director
1 film together
Notably The Stars Between Us
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Rupert Wyatt
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rise of the Planet of the ApesPeter Benson
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Christmas Above the CloudsDavid Winning
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Summer RomanceMcG
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
This Means WarMichael Robison
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Stars Between UsSix 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
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
as Animal Control Officer #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
Christmas Above the Clouds
as Paul
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
as Animal Control Officer #1
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
as Animal Control Officer #1
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
as Animal Control Officer #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. Kevin O'Grady 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.
Romance Legend
Awarded
4 catalogue titles in romance, 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
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
as Animal Control Officer #1
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
as Animal Control Officer #1
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Christmas Above the Clouds
as Paul
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Drone
as Father
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
as Animal Control Officer #1
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
as Animal Control Officer #1
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Christmas Above the Clouds
as Paul
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
as Animal Control Officer #1
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Have your say
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Reference
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