Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3862
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Kevin Sussman 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 Sussman appears in 12 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Kevin. A.I. Artificial Intelligence is the clearest case: a film rated 7.1 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, quiet performance, transformation. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for romance, action, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Robert Luketic, Ang Lee, Joel Coen and others, Kevin Sussman 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.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) as Supernerd · Burn After Reading (2008) as Tuchman Marsh Man · Hitch (2005) as Neil
Career snapshot
Ranked #3862 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
12
2001–2010
Career length
9 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.1
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.1
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Most frequent director
Andy Tennant
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Andy Tennant
Most common genre
Comedy
10 titles
Average runtime
1h 47m
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
6.3 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Taking Woodstock, Burn After Reading, Made of Honor — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.3
Across 11 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.3
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. Taking Woodstock, Burn After Reading, Made of Honor.
Most productive era
2000s
11 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.46 films | — |
| Action | — | 6.01 film |
| Thriller | 6.31 film | 6.01 film |
| Comedy | 6.29 films | 6.01 film |
| Romance | 6.24 films | 6.01 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Steve.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2001A.I. Artificial Intelligence
7.1 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
2010Killers
The current state of the argument, as Mac Bailey.
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 Supernerd
Directed by Steven Spielberg
as Neil
Directed by Andy Tennant
as Mac Bailey
Directed by Robert Luketic
as Stan
Directed by Ang Lee
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
Supernerd
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Performance score7.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Supernerd gives Kevin Sussman a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Tuchman Marsh Man
Burn After Reading (2008)
Performance score6.6
Burn After Reading asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Tuchman Marsh Man is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Neil
Hitch (2005)
Performance score6.6
Hitch asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Neil is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Mac Bailey
Killers (2010)
Performance score6.5
Killers asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mac Bailey 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 Supernerd
Start here. A.I. Artificial Intelligence is the clearest statement of what Kevin Sussman does — accessible, 146 minutes, and rated 7.1 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.
Hitch (2005)
Keeps the drama register of A.I. Artificial Intelligence but asks for a colder reading of it.
Burn After Reading (2008)
Keeps the comedy register of Hitch but asks for a colder reading of it.
Taking Woodstock (2009)
Keeps the comedy register of Burn After Reading but asks for a colder reading of it.
Killers (2010)
Keeps the comedy register of Taking Woodstock but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Andy Tennant
Director
2 films together
Notably Hitch
Steven Spielberg
Director
1 film together
Notably A.I. Artificial Intelligence
David Wain
Director
1 film together
Notably Wet Hot American Summer
Roger Michell
Director
1 film together
Notably Changing Lanes
Nick Hurran
Director
1 film together
Notably Little Black Book
Christopher Guest
Director
1 film together
Notably For Your Consideration
Paul Weiland
Director
1 film together
Notably Made of Honor
Joel Coen
Director
1 film together
Notably Burn After Reading
Ang Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably Taking Woodstock
Robert Luketic
Director
1 film together
Notably Killers
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Andy Tennant
Director
2 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
HitchSteven Spielberg
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A.I. Artificial IntelligenceJoel Coen
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Burn After ReadingPaul Weiland
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Made of HonorRoger Michell
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Changing LanesAng Lee
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Taking WoodstockDavid Wain
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wet Hot American SummerRobert Luketic
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
KillersChristopher Guest
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
For Your ConsiderationNick Hurran
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Little Black BookSix 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
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
as Supernerd
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Hitch
as Neil
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
as Supernerd
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
For Your Consideration
as Commercial Director
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
as Supernerd
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 Sussman 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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
10 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
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
as Supernerd
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
as Supernerd
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Hitch
as Neil
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Changing Lanes
as Tyler Cohen
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
as Supernerd
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Killers
as Mac Bailey
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Taking Woodstock
as Stan
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
For Your Consideration
as Commercial Director
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
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Edward Norton
Built a career in the same territory: comedy and adventure
Tom Wilkinson
Built a career in the same territory: comedy and adventure
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Elliot Page
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Have your say
Community
Which Kevin Sussman 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
