Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#958
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Laura Dern represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 51 years in, and Laura is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Laura Dern appears in 47 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Laura. The Making of "Marriage Story" is the clearest case: a film rated 10.0 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, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Bradley Cooper, Darren Aronofsky, Noah Baumbach and others, Laura Dern 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 Making of "Marriage Story" (2020) as Self · Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love (2023) as Self - Guest · Jurassic Park (1993) as Ellie
Career snapshot
Ranked #958 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
47
1974–2025
Career length
51 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
10.0
The Making of "Marriage Story"
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
10.0
The Making of "Marriage Story"
Most frequent director
David Lynch
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With David Lynch
Most common genre
Drama
29 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
7.2
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
7.0
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. October Sky, Jurassic Park, A Perfect World — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.5
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
7.5
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1970s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.
Most productive era
2010s
19 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 | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.81 film | 7.31 film | 7.52 films | 6.44 films | 6.717 films | 6.44 films |
| Action | — | — | — | — | 6.52 films | — |
| Thriller | — | 7.61 film | 7.32 films | 6.34 films | — | 5.53 films |
| Comedy | — | — | — | 5.52 films | 5.84 films | 5.85 films |
| Crime | — | 7.61 film | 7.32 films | 6.02 films | 6.63 films | 6.81 film |
| Romance | 6.81 film | — | 7.01 film | 5.52 films | 6.84 films | 6.32 films |
| Horror | — | 7.61 film | — | 7.01 film | — | 3.21 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1974Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Girl Eating Ice Cream Cone (uncredited).
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2020The Making of "Marriage Story"
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 10.0 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 - Liz.
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.
47 of 47 films
as Ellie
Directed by Steven Spielberg
as Self - Guest
Directed by Paul Miller
as Nora Fanshaw
Directed by Noah Baumbach
as Marmee March
Directed by Greta Gerwig
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
Self
The Making of "Marriage Story" (2020)
Performance score9.7
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Self gives Laura Dern a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Ellie
Jurassic Park (1993)
Performance score8.4
Jurassic Park asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ellie is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Self - Guest
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love (2023)
Performance score8.0
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self - Guest is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Nora Fanshaw
Marriage Story (2019)
Performance score8.0
Marriage Story asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Nora Fanshaw 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 Self
Start here. The Making of "Marriage Story" is the clearest statement of what Laura Dern does — accessible, 97 minutes, and rated 10.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Laura 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.
Jurassic Park (1993)
A deliberate change of key after The Making of "Marriage Story" — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Marriage Story (2019)
A deliberate change of key after Jurassic Park — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Little Women (2019)
Keeps the drama register of Marriage Story but asks for a colder reading of it.
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love (2023)
A deliberate change of key after Little Women — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
David Lynch
Director
3 films together
Notably Blue Velvet
Joe Johnston
Director
2 films together
Notably October Sky
Noah Baumbach
Director
2 films together
Notably Marriage Story
Martin Scorsese
Director
1 film together
Notably Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Peter Bogdanovich
Director
1 film together
Notably Mask
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together
Notably A Perfect World
Steven Spielberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Jurassic Park
Robert Altman
Director
1 film together
Notably Dr. T & the Women
Jessie Nelson
Director
1 film together
Notably I Am Sam
Todd Robinson
Director
1 film together
Notably Lonely Hearts
Paul Weitz
Director
1 film together
Notably Little Fockers
Paul Thomas Anderson
Director
1 film together
Notably The Master
Jean-Marc Vallée
Director
1 film together
Notably Wild
Thomas Carter
Director
1 film together
Notably When the Game Stands Tall
Josh Boone
Director
1 film together
Notably The Fault in Our Stars
Ramin Bahrani
Director
1 film together
Notably 99 Homes
John Lee Hancock
Director
1 film together
Notably The Founder
Craig Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably Wilson
Alexander Payne
Director
1 film together
Notably Downsizing
Rian Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Edward Zwick
Director
1 film together
Notably Trial by Fire
Greta Gerwig
Director
1 film together
Notably Little Women
André Szöts
Director
1 film together
Notably Grizzly II: Revenge
Linda Mendoza
Director
1 film together
Notably A Night at the Academy Museum
Florian Zeller
Director
1 film together
Notably The Son
Colin Trevorrow
Director
1 film together
Notably Jurassic World Dominion
Paul Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love
Susannah Grant
Director
1 film together
Notably Lonely Planet
Jon Bass
Director
1 film together
Notably Carole & Grey
Darren Aronofsky
Director
1 film together
Notably Caught Stealing
Bradley Cooper
Director
1 film together
Notably Is This Thing On?
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
David Lynch
Director
3 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Blue VelvetNoah Baumbach
Director
2 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Marriage StoryJoe Johnston
Director
2 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
October SkyPaul Miller
Director
1 film together · 8.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + LoveSteven Spielberg
Director
1 film together · 8.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jurassic ParkGreta Gerwig
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Little WomenJosh Boone
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 Fault in Our StarsJessie Nelson
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
I Am SamClint Eastwood
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Perfect WorldPeter Bogdanovich
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MaskJohn Lee Hancock
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The FounderPaul 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
The MasterLinda Mendoza
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Night at the Academy MuseumEdward Zwick
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Trial by FireRian Johnson
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Star Wars: The Last JediJean-Marc Vallée
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
WildDarren Aronofsky
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Caught StealingFlorian Zeller
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The SonRamin Bahrani
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
99 HomesMartin Scorsese
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Alice Doesn't Live Here AnymoreThomas Carter
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
When the Game Stands TallBradley Cooper
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Is This Thing On?Colin Trevorrow
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jurassic World DominionSusannah Grant
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lonely PlanetTodd Robinson
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lonely HeartsCraig Johnson
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
WilsonPaul Weitz
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Little FockersAlexander Payne
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DownsizingRobert Altman
Director
1 film together · 4.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dr. T & the WomenAndré Szöts
Director
1 film together · 3.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Grizzly II: RevengeJon Bass
Director
1 film together · 1.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Carole & GreySix 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 Making of "Marriage Story"
as Self
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Little Women
as Marmee March
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 Making of "Marriage Story"
as Self
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love
as Self - Guest
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Making of "Marriage Story"
as Self
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. Laura Dern 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
51 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
29 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 Making of "Marriage Story"
as Self
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Making of "Marriage Story"
as Self
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Lonely Planet
as Katherine Loewe
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Inland Empire
as Nikki Grace / Susan Blue
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Making of "Marriage Story"
as Self
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
as Vice Admiral Holdo
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Dr. T & the Women
as Peggy Travis
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
as Vice Admiral Holdo
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
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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
Leonardo DiCaprio
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Robert De Niro
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Have your say
Community
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Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
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Reference
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