Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#14151
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Lyman Chen 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.
Lyman Chen appears in 9 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Lyman. The Departed 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 comedy, fantasy, romance. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Daryl Wein, Christopher Ray, Todd Haynes and others, Lyman Chen 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 Departed (2006) as Translator · Dark Waters (2019) as Hack Scientist (uncredited) · Something from Tiffany's (2022) as Cabbie
Career snapshot
Ranked #14151 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
9
2006–2023
Career length
17 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.4
The Departed
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.2
The Departed
Most frequent director
Martin Scorsese
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Martin Scorsese
Most common genre
Thriller
6 titles
Average runtime
1h 33m
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
2000s
6.9 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. The Happening, The Departed — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.9
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.8
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. The Happening, The Departed.
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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 8.41 film | 7.51 film | 6.71 film |
| Action | — | 6.52 films | — |
| Thriller | 6.92 films | 6.34 films | — |
| Comedy | — | 6.21 film | 6.62 films |
| Crime | 8.41 film | 6.52 films | — |
| Romance | — | — | 6.71 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2006The Departed
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Translator. 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
2023Genie
The current state of the argument, as Charles.
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.
9 of 9 films
as Translator
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as Hack Scientist (uncredited)
Directed by Todd Haynes
as Doctor Maslow
Directed by Christopher Ray
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
Translator
The Departed (2006)
Performance score8.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Translator gives Lyman Chen a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Hack Scientist (uncredited)
Dark Waters (2019)
Performance score7.3
Dark Waters asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Hack Scientist (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Cabbie
Something from Tiffany's (2022)
Performance score6.6
Something from Tiffany's asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Cabbie is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Charles
Genie (2023)
Performance score6.5
Genie asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Charles 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 Translator
Start here. The Departed is the clearest statement of what Lyman Chen does — accessible, 151 minutes, and rated 8.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Lyman 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.
Dark Waters (2019)
Keeps the drama register of The Departed but asks for a colder reading of it.
Staged Killer (2019)
Keeps the thriller register of Dark Waters but asks for a colder reading of it.
Something from Tiffany's (2022)
A deliberate change of key after Staged Killer — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Genie (2023)
Keeps the comedy register of Something from Tiffany's but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Martin Scorsese
Director
2 films together
Notably The Departed
M. Night Shyamalan
Director
1 film together
Notably The Happening
David Koepp
Director
1 film together
Notably Premium Rush
Boaz Yakin
Director
1 film together
Notably Safe
Todd Haynes
Director
1 film together
Notably Dark Waters
Christopher Ray
Director
1 film together
Notably Staged Killer
Daryl Wein
Director
1 film together
Notably Something from Tiffany's
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Martin Scorsese
Director
2 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The DepartedTodd Haynes
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dark WatersDaryl Wein
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Something from Tiffany'sBoaz Yakin
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SafeDavid Koepp
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Premium RushM. Night Shyamalan
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The HappeningChristopher Ray
Director
1 film together · 4.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Staged KillerSix 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 Departed
as Translator
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Something from Tiffany's
as Cabbie
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 Departed
as Translator
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Dark Waters
as Hack Scientist (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Departed
as Translator
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. Lyman Chen 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.
Thriller Legend
Awarded
6 catalogue titles in thriller, 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 Departed
as Translator
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Departed
as Translator
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Something from Tiffany's
as Cabbie
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Departed
as Translator
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Departed
as Translator
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Safe
as Principal
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Something from Tiffany's
as Cabbie
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Departed
as Translator
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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Built a career in the same territory: drama and thriller
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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