Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#220
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Mark Wahlberg represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 32 years in, and Mark is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Mark Wahlberg appears in 61 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Mark. The Departed is the clearest case: a film rated 9.0 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 drama, history, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Elegance Bratton, Peter Farrelly, Simon Cellan Jones and others, Mark Wahlberg 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 Dignam · The Departed (2006) as Dignam · Arthur the King (2024) as Michael
Career snapshot
Ranked #220 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
61
1994–2026
Career length
32 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.0
The Departed
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.5
The Departed
Most frequent director
Peter Berg
5 films together
Longest collaboration
5×
With Peter Berg
Most common genre
Action
30 titles
Average runtime
1h 50m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.9
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
6.7
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
6.6 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. The Lovely Bones, The Happening, Max Payne — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.6
Across 16 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.6
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Three Kings, The Corruptor, The Big Hit.
Most productive era
2010s
22 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 | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.53 films | 7.010 films | 6.710 films | 5.34 films |
| Action | 6.33 films | 6.46 films | 6.412 films | 6.49 films |
| Thriller | 6.23 films | 6.78 films | 6.27 films | 4.84 films |
| Comedy | 6.33 films | 6.52 films | 6.410 films | 6.47 films |
| Crime | 6.53 films | 7.17 films | 6.47 films | 6.61 film |
| Romance | — | 6.31 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1994Renaissance Man
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Pvt. Tommy Lee Haywood.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2006The Departed
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.0 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
2026Balls Up
The current state of the argument, as Brad.
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.
61 of 61 films
as Dignam
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as Dignam
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as Michael
Directed by Simon Cellan Jones
as Pete Wagner
Directed by Unknown
as Petty Officer First Class Marcus Luttrell
Directed by Peter Berg
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 72 titles · 93 total credits · active 1994–2026
By Any Means
2026 · Gregory Scarpa · Producer
Balls Up
2026 · Brad
The Family Plan 2
2025 · Dan Morgan · Producer
Flight Risk
2025 · Daryl Booth
Play Dirty
2025 · Parker
TMZ peanut oil
2025 · TV
Cocaine Quarterback: Signal-Caller for the Cartel
2025 · TV · Executive Producer
Spy High
2025 · TV · Executive Producer
Arthur the King
2024 · Michael · Executive Producer
The Union
2024 · Mike McKenna · Producer
MoviePass, MovieCrash
2024 · Producer
Commitment to Life
2023 · Self (archive footage)
The Family Plan
2023 · Dan Morgan · Producer
The Golden Boy
2023 · TV · Executive Producer
Uncharted
2022 · Victor 'Sully' Sullivan
Me Time
2022 · Huck Dembo
Father Stu
2022 · Father Stuart 'Stu' Long · Producer
Infinite
2021 · Evan McCauley · Producer
kid 90
2021 · Self (archive footage)
Scoob!
2020 · Blue Falcon (voice)
Spenser Confidential
2020 · Spenser · Producer
Joe Bell
2020 · Joe Bell · Producer
McMillion$
2020 · TV · Executive Producer
Mile 22
2018 · James Silva · Producer
The defining work
#1
Dignam
The Departed (2006)
Performance score8.9
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Dignam gives Mark Wahlberg a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Dignam
The Departed (2006)
Performance score8.3
The Departed asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dignam is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Michael
Arthur the King (2024)
Performance score8.1
Arthur the King asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Michael is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Pete Wagner
Instant Family (2018)
Performance score8.1
Instant Family asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Pete Wagner 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 Dignam
Start here. The Departed is the clearest statement of what Mark Wahlberg does — accessible, 151 minutes, and rated 9.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Mark 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 Departed (2006)
Same director as The Departed, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Lone Survivor (2013)
Keeps the drama register of The Departed but asks for a colder reading of it.
Instant Family (2018)
Keeps the drama register of Lone Survivor but asks for a colder reading of it.
Arthur the King (2024)
Keeps the drama register of Instant Family but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Peter Berg
Director
5 films together
Notably Lone Survivor
David O. Russell
Director
3 films together
Notably The Fighter
Michael Bay
Director
3 films together
Notably Pain & Gain
Simon Cellan Jones
Director
3 films together
Notably Arthur the King
James Foley
Director
2 films together
Notably Fear
Martin Scorsese
Director
2 films together
Notably The Departed
Baltasar Kormákur
Director
2 films together
Notably 2 Guns
Seth MacFarlane
Director
2 films together
Notably Ted
Antoine Fuqua
Director
2 films together
Notably Shooter
Penny Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably Renaissance Man
Wolfgang Petersen
Director
1 film together
Notably The Perfect Storm
Stephen Herek
Director
1 film together
Notably Rock Star
Tim Burton
Director
1 film together
Notably Planet of the Apes
Jonathan Demme
Director
1 film together
Notably The Truth About Charlie
F. Gary Gray
Director
1 film together
Notably The Italian Job
John Singleton
Director
1 film together
Notably Four Brothers
Ericson Core
Director
1 film together
Notably Invincible
M. Night Shyamalan
Director
1 film together
Notably The Happening
Peter Jackson
Director
1 film together
Notably The Lovely Bones
Adam McKay
Director
1 film together
Notably The Other Guys
Shawn Levy
Director
1 film together
Notably Date Night
Allen Hughes
Director
1 film together
Notably Broken City
Rupert Wyatt
Director
1 film together
Notably The Gambler
Doug Ellin
Director
1 film together
Notably Entourage
William Monahan
Director
1 film together
Notably Mojave
Ridley Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably All the Money in the World
Reinaldo Marcus Green
Director
1 film together
Notably Joe Bell
Tony Cervone
Director
1 film together
Notably Scoob!
Soleil Moon Frye
Director
1 film together
Notably kid 90
John Hamburg
Director
1 film together
Notably Me Time
Ruben Fleischer
Director
1 film together
Notably Uncharted
Jeffrey Schwarz
Director
1 film together
Notably Commitment to Life
Julian Farino
Director
1 film together
Notably The Union
Shane Black
Director
1 film together
Notably Play Dirty
Mel Gibson
Director
1 film together
Notably Flight Risk
Peter Farrelly
Director
1 film together
Notably Balls Up
Elegance Bratton
Director
1 film together
Notably By Any Means
Matt Damon
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Leonardo DiCaprio
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Jack Nicholson
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Martin Sheen
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Ray Winstone
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Vera Farmiga
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Anthony Anderson
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Alec Baldwin
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Kevin Corrigan
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
James Badge Dale
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
David O'Hara
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Mark Rolston
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Peter Berg
Director
5 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 5 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Lone SurvivorSimon Cellan Jones
Director
3 films together · 7.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Arthur the KingDavid O. Russell
Director
3 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The FighterMichael Bay
Director
3 films together · 6.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Pain & GainMartin Scorsese
Director
2 films together · 8.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The DepartedAntoine Fuqua
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
ShooterBaltasar Kormákur
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
2 GunsSeth MacFarlane
Director
2 films together · 6.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
TedJames Foley
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
FearPeter Jackson
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 Lovely BonesSoleil Moon Frye
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
kid 90Tony Cervone
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scoob!Ericson Core
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
InvincibleRuben Fleischer
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
UnchartedF. Gary Gray
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Italian JobJohn Singleton
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Four BrothersStephen Herek
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rock StarShane Black
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Play DirtyReinaldo Marcus Green
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Joe BellRidley Scott
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
All the Money in the WorldWolfgang Petersen
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Perfect StormAdam McKay
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Other GuysDoug Ellin
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EntourageShawn Levy
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Date NightPenny Marshall
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Renaissance ManJulian Farino
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 UnionRupert Wyatt
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 GamblerAllen Hughes
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Broken CityMel Gibson
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Flight RiskJohn Hamburg
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Me TimePeter Farrelly
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Balls UpTim Burton
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Planet of the ApesM. 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 HappeningWilliam Monahan
Director
1 film together · 5.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MojaveJonathan Demme
Director
1 film together · 4.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Truth About CharlieElegance Bratton
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
By Any MeansJeffrey Schwarz
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Commitment to LifeSix 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 Dignam
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Invincible
as Vince Papale
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 Dignam
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Entourage
as Mark Wahlberg
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Departed
as Dignam
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. Mark Wahlberg has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 7.9 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #512 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.0 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Crime, Thriller, Drama | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Martin Scorsese | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Quiet performance, Intensity, Screen presence | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 2006–2006 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Dignam — The Departed | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | The Departed | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
The Departed
Shared directors
Martin Scorsese
Shared collections
Top 100 Crime Movies, Thriller Movies, Crime Movies, Drama Movies
Collaborators in common
Martin Scorsese · Leonardo DiCaprio · Jack Nicholson
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
32 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.
Action Legend
Awarded
30 catalogue titles in action, 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 Dignam
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Departed
as Dignam
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Invincible
as Vince Papale
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Truth About Charlie
as Peter Joshua
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Departed
as Dignam
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Family Plan
as Dan Morgan
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Rock Star
as Chris 'Izzy' Cole
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Departed
as Dignam
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 4 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
From the magazine
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
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
Robert De Niro
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Leonardo DiCaprio
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Have your say
Community
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