Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#358
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Marlon Wayans represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 28 years in, and Marlon is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Marlon Wayans appears in 22 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Marlon. Requiem for a Dream is the clearest case: a film rated 8.1 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, mystery, horror. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Michael Tiddes, Sam Wrench, Ben Affleck and others, Marlon Wayans 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.
Requiem for a Dream (2000) as Tyrone C. Love · Air (2023) as George Raveling · White Chicks (2004) as Marcus Copeland
Career snapshot
Ranked #358 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
22
1998–2026
Career length
28 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.1
Requiem for a Dream
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
Requiem for a Dream
Most frequent director
Michael Tiddes
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Michael Tiddes
Most common genre
Comedy
16 titles
Average runtime
1h 40m
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
6.5 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Norbit, White Chicks — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.5
Across 7 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.4
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. Senseless.
Most productive era
2020s
10 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 | — | 8.11 film | — | 6.73 films |
| Action | — | 5.81 film | 6.61 film | — |
| Thriller | — | 5.92 films | — | 5.71 film |
| Comedy | 6.21 film | 6.35 films | 6.04 films | 5.86 films |
| Crime | — | 7.13 films | 6.61 film | — |
| Romance | 6.21 film | — | — | 6.11 film |
| Horror | — | — | — | 6.33 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1998Senseless
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Darryl Witherspoon.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
8.1 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
2026Scary Movie
The current state of the argument, as Shorty / 'Joe' / 'Tiffany' / Count Brolock.
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.
22 of 22 films
as Tyrone C. Love
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
as Marcus Copeland
Directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans
as Shorty / 'Joe' / 'Tiffany' / Count Brolock
Directed by Michael Tiddes
as George Raveling
Directed by Ben Affleck
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
Tyrone C. Love
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Performance score8.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Tyrone C. Love gives Marlon Wayans a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Marcus Copeland
White Chicks (2004)
Performance score7.5
White Chicks asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Marcus Copeland is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Shorty / 'Joe' / 'Tiffany' / Count Brolock
Scary Movie (2026)
Performance score7.4
Scary Movie asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Shorty / 'Joe' / 'Tiffany' / Count Brolock is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
George Raveling
Air (2023)
Performance score7.2
Air asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. George Raveling 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 Tyrone C. Love
Start here. Requiem for a Dream is the clearest statement of what Marlon Wayans does — accessible, 102 minutes, and rated 8.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Marlon 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.
White Chicks (2004)
Keeps the crime register of Requiem for a Dream but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Curse of Bridge Hollow (2022)
Keeps the comedy register of White Chicks but asks for a colder reading of it.
Air (2023)
A deliberate change of key after The Curse of Bridge Hollow — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Scary Movie (2026)
A deliberate change of key after Air — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Keenen Ivory Wayans
Director
3 films together
Notably White Chicks
Michael Tiddes
Director
3 films together
Notably Scary Movie
Penelope Spheeris
Director
1 film together
Notably Senseless
Darren Aronofsky
Director
1 film together
Notably Requiem for a Dream
Joel Coen
Director
1 film together
Notably The Ladykillers
Brian Robbins
Director
1 film together
Notably Norbit
Stephen Sommers
Director
1 film together
Notably G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Paul Feig
Director
1 film together
Notably The Heat
Sofia Coppola
Director
1 film together
Notably On the Rocks
Jay Karas
Director
1 film together
Notably Feeding America Comedy Festival
Marlon Wayans
Director
1 film together
Notably Marlon Wayans: You Know What It Is
Liesl Tommy
Director
1 film together
Notably Respect
Jeff Wadlow
Director
1 film together
Notably The Curse of Bridge Hollow
Ben Affleck
Director
1 film together
Notably Air
Sam Wrench
Director
1 film together
Notably The Real Full Monty
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Keenen Ivory Wayans
Director
3 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
White ChicksMichael Tiddes
Director
3 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Scary MovieDarren Aronofsky
Director
1 film together · 8.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Requiem for a DreamBen Affleck
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AirLiesl Tommy
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RespectPaul Feig
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The HeatJeff Wadlow
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 Curse of Bridge HollowPenelope Spheeris
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SenselessSofia Coppola
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
On the RocksJoel Coen
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The LadykillersJay Karas
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Feeding America Comedy FestivalStephen Sommers
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
G.I. Joe: The Rise of CobraBrian Robbins
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
NorbitMarlon Wayans
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Marlon Wayans: You Know What It IsSam Wrench
Director
1 film together · 4.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Real Full MontySix 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
Requiem for a Dream
as Tyrone C. Love
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Respect
as Ted White
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Requiem for a Dream
as Tyrone C. Love
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Air
as George Raveling
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Requiem for a Dream
as Tyrone C. Love
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. Marlon Wayans 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
28 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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
16 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
Requiem for a Dream
as Tyrone C. Love
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Requiem for a Dream
as Tyrone C. Love
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Respect
as Ted White
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
HIM
as Isaiah
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Requiem for a Dream
as Tyrone C. Love
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
as Ripcord
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
On the Rocks
as Dean
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Scary Movie
as Shorty / 'Joe' / 'Tiffany' / Count Brolock
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
Community
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Reference
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