Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#171
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Matthew Lillard represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 33 years in, and Matthew is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Matthew Lillard appears in 57 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Matthew. Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost is the clearest case: a film rated 8.0 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 action, science fiction, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with James Gunn, Tony Gilroy, Kevin Williamson and others, Matthew Lillard 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.
Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost (2018) as Shaggy Rogers (voice) · Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost (2019) as Shaggy Rogers (voice) · Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! (2020) as Shaggy Rogers (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #171 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
57
1994–2027
Career length
33 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.0
Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost
Most frequent director
Ethan Spaulding
5 films together
Longest collaboration
5×
With Ethan Spaulding
Most common genre
Comedy
38 titles
Average runtime
1h 26m
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
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
2010s
7.4 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island, Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost, Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
7.4
Across 23 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
7.4
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. She's All That, Wing Commander, SLC Punk.
Most productive era
2010s
23 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 | 6.72 films | 6.81 film | 6.92 films | 3.62 films |
| Action | 5.62 films | 5.61 film | 7.21 film | 3.82 films |
| Thriller | 6.41 film | 6.52 films | — | 6.92 films |
| Comedy | 6.54 films | 5.77 films | 7.421 films | 7.16 films |
| Crime | 6.93 films | 5.81 film | — | 6.51 film |
| Romance | 6.32 films | 6.12 films | 7.01 film | 6.51 film |
| Horror | 7.22 films | 6.31 film | 6.32 films | 6.96 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1994Serial Mom
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Chip Sutphin.
Highest rated performance
2018Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost
8.0 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2019Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2027Man of Tomorrow
The current state of the argument.
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.
57 of 57 films
as Shaggy Rogers (voice)
Directed by Cecilia Aranovich
as Shaggy Rogers (voice)
Directed by Cecilia Aranovich
as Shaggy Rogers (voice)
Directed by Melchior Zwyer
as Shaggy Rogers (voice)
Directed by Maxwell Atoms
as Shaggy (voice)
Directed by Matt Peters
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
Shaggy Rogers (voice)
Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog (2021)
Performance score8.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Shaggy Rogers (voice) gives Matthew Lillard a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Shaggy Rogers (voice)
Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost (2019)
Performance score8.2
Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Shaggy Rogers (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Shaggy Rogers (voice)
Scooby-Doo! The Sword and the Scoob (2021)
Performance score8.1
Scooby-Doo! The Sword and the Scoob asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Shaggy Rogers (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Shaggy Rogers (voice)
Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! (2020)
Performance score8.1
Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Shaggy Rogers (voice) 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 Shaggy Rogers (voice)
Start here. Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog is the clearest statement of what Matthew Lillard does — accessible, 72 minutes, and rated 7.7 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Matthew 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.
Scooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown (2017)
Keeps the mystery register of Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog but asks for a colder reading of it.
Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost (2019)
Keeps the mystery register of Scooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown but asks for a colder reading of it.
Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! (2020)
Keeps the mystery register of Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost but asks for a colder reading of it.
Scooby-Doo! The Sword and the Scoob (2021)
Keeps the mystery register of Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Ethan Spaulding
Director
5 films together
Notably Scooby-Doo! Camp Scare
Cecilia Aranovich
Director
3 films together
Notably Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost
Wes Craven
Director
2 films together
Notably Scream
Raja Gosnell
Director
2 films together
Notably Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
Paul McEvoy
Director
2 films together
Notably Scooby-Doo! Moon Monster Madness
Tony Cervone
Director
2 films together
Notably Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo
John Waters
Director
1 film together
Notably Serial Mom
Penelope Spheeris
Director
1 film together
Notably Senseless
James Merendino
Director
1 film together
Notably SLC Punk
Christopher Roberts
Director
1 film together
Notably Wing Commander
Robert Iscove
Director
1 film together
Notably She's All That
Michael Tollin
Director
1 film together
Notably Summer Catch
Joe Dante
Director
1 film together
Notably Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Steven Brill
Director
1 film together
Notably Without a Paddle
Paul McGuigan
Director
1 film together
Notably Wicker Park
Brian Robbins
Director
1 film together
Notably The Perfect Score
Uwe Boll
Director
1 film together
Notably In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
Alexander Payne
Director
1 film together
Notably The Descendants
David Block
Director
1 film together
Notably Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire
Heather A. Maxwell
Director
1 film together
Notably Big Top Scooby-Doo!
Michael Goguen
Director
1 film together
Notably Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon
Robert Lorenz
Director
1 film together
Notably Trouble with the Curve
Brendan Maher
Director
1 film together
Notably Return to Nim's Island
Victor Cook
Director
1 film together
Notably Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright
Brandon Vietti
Director
1 film together
Notably Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery
Tim Divar
Director
1 film together
Notably Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon
Rick Morales
Director
1 film together
Notably LEGO Scooby-Doo! Haunted Hollywood
Matt Peters
Director
1 film together
Notably Scooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown
Doug Murphy
Director
1 film together
Notably Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost
Jake Castorena
Director
1 film together
Notably Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Maxwell Atoms
Director
1 film together
Notably Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo!
Jonathan Stern
Director
1 film together
Notably Scooby-Doo, Where Are You Now!
Melchior Zwyer
Director
1 film together
Notably Scooby-Doo! The Sword and the Scoob
Mark Waters
Director
1 film together
Notably He's All That
Audie Harrison
Director
1 film together
Notably Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin
Director
1 film together
Notably Scream
Michael Cusack
Director
1 film together
Notably The Paloni Show! Halloween Special!
Mike Flanagan
Director
1 film together
Notably The Life of Chuck
Kevin Williamson
Director
1 film together
Notably Scream 7
Tony Gilroy
Director
1 film together
Notably Behemoth!
James Gunn
Director
1 film together
Notably Man of Tomorrow
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Ethan Spaulding
Director
5 films together · 7.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 5 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Scooby-Doo! Camp ScareCecilia Aranovich
Director
3 films together · 7.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th GhostPaul McEvoy
Director
2 films together · 7.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Scooby-Doo! Moon Monster MadnessTony Cervone
Director
2 films together · 7.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-DooWes Craven
Director
2 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
ScreamRaja Gosnell
Director
2 films together · 6.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters UnleashedDoug Murphy
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet GhostMaxwell Atoms
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo!Matt Peters
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scooby-Doo! Shaggy's ShowdownJonathan Stern
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You Now!Michael Goguen
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue FalconHeather A. Maxwell
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Big Top Scooby-Doo!David Block
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scooby-Doo! Music of the VampireMelchior Zwyer
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scooby-Doo! The Sword and the ScoobTim Divar
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed DemonVictor Cook
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scooby-Doo! Stage FrightMike Flanagan
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Life of ChuckRick Morales
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LEGO Scooby-Doo! Haunted HollywoodBrandon Vietti
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania MysteryJake Castorena
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the BoldAudie Harrison
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!Robert Lorenz
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Trouble with the CurveJames Merendino
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SLC PunkAlexander Payne
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 DescendantsPaul McGuigan
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wicker ParkMatt Bettinelli-Olpin
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ScreamJohn Waters
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Serial MomKevin Williamson
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scream 7Mark Waters
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
He's All ThatBrendan Maher
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Return to Nim's IslandMichael Cusack
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Paloni Show! Halloween Special!Joe Dante
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Looney Tunes: Back in ActionRobert Iscove
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
She's All ThatPenelope 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
SenselessBrian Robbins
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Perfect ScoreSteven Brill
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Without a PaddleMichael Tollin
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Summer CatchUwe Boll
Director
1 film together · 4.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege TaleChristopher Roberts
Director
1 film together · 4.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wing CommanderJames Gunn
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Man of TomorrowTony Gilroy
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Behemoth!Six 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
Scream
as Stuart
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Trouble with the Curve
as Phillip Sanderson
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost
as Shaggy Rogers (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Scream 2
as Guy at Party (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog
as Shaggy Rogers (voice)
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. Matthew Lillard 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
33 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
38 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
Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire
as Shaggy Rogers (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo!
as Shaggy Rogers (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Trouble with the Curve
as Phillip Sanderson
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Scooby-Doo! and Krypto, Too!
as Shaggy Rogers (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms
as Shaggy (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Without a Paddle
as Jerry Conlaine
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
SLC Punk
as Stevo
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Scream 7
as Stu Macher
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
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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