Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#802
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Megan Mullally represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 43 years in, and Megan is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Megan Mullally appears in 20 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Megan. A Parks and Recreation Special is the clearest case: a film rated 7.6 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 Josephine Decker, Jocelyn Moorhouse, Chelsea Peretti and others, Megan Mullally 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.
A Parks and Recreation Special (2020) as Tammy II · Crush (2022) as Angie Evans · The Disaster Artist (2017) as Mrs. Sestero
Career snapshot
Ranked #802 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
20
1983–2026
Career length
43 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.6
A Parks and Recreation Special
Average Nutevio score
6.1
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.6
A Parks and Recreation Special
Most frequent director
Josephine Decker
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Josephine Decker
Most common genre
Comedy
18 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
6.6
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
6.5 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. The Disaster Artist, Why Him?, Hotel Transylvania 2 — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
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
2010s
6.5
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. About Last Night..., Once Bitten, Risky Business.
Most productive era
2020s
8 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 | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.32 films | 6.11 film | — | 6.73 films | 5.64 films |
| Thriller | — | — | — | — | 6.71 film |
| Comedy | 6.23 films | 6.11 film | 6.21 film | 6.57 films | 5.76 films |
| Crime | — | — | — | — | 6.71 film |
| Romance | 6.32 films | 6.11 film | — | 6.01 film | 6.22 films |
| Horror | 5.81 film | — | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1983Risky Business
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Call Girl.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2020A Parks and Recreation Special
7.6 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
2026Chasing Summer
The current state of the argument, as Layanne.
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.
20 of 20 films
as Angie Evans
Directed by Sammi Cohen
as Mrs. Keenan
Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts
as Linda (voice)
Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky
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
Tammy II
A Parks and Recreation Special (2020)
Performance score7.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Tammy II gives Megan Mullally a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Angie Evans
Crush (2022)
Performance score7.2
Crush asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Angie Evans is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Mrs. Sestero
The Disaster Artist (2017)
Performance score7.0
The Disaster Artist asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mrs. Sestero is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Mrs. Keenan
The Kings of Summer (2013)
Performance score6.9
The Kings of Summer asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mrs. Keenan 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 Tammy II
Start here. A Parks and Recreation Special is the clearest statement of what Megan Mullally does — accessible, 25 minutes, and rated 7.6 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Megan 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 Kings of Summer (2013)
Keeps the comedy register of A Parks and Recreation Special but asks for a colder reading of it.
Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015)
Keeps the comedy register of The Kings of Summer but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Disaster Artist (2017)
Keeps the comedy register of Hotel Transylvania 2 but asks for a colder reading of it.
Crush (2022)
Keeps the comedy register of The Disaster Artist but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Paul Brickman
Director
1 film together
Notably Risky Business
Howard Storm
Director
1 film together
Notably Once Bitten
Edward Zwick
Director
1 film together
Notably About Last Night...
Simon J. Smith
Director
1 film together
Notably Bee Movie
Kirk Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably What to Expect When You're Expecting
Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Director
1 film together
Notably The Kings of Summer
Miguel Arteta
Director
1 film together
Notably Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Genndy Tartakovsky
Director
1 film together
Notably Hotel Transylvania 2
John Hamburg
Director
1 film together
Notably Why Him?
James Franco
Director
1 film together
Notably The Disaster Artist
Morgan Sackett
Director
1 film together
Notably A Parks and Recreation Special
Sammi Cohen
Director
1 film together
Notably Crush
James Ponsoldt
Director
1 film together
Notably Summering
Larry Charles
Director
1 film together
Notably Dicks: The Musical
Chelsea Peretti
Director
1 film together
Notably First Time Female Director
Jocelyn Moorhouse
Director
1 film together
Notably The Fabulous Four
Josephine Decker
Director
1 film together
Notably Chasing Summer
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Morgan Sackett
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Parks and Recreation SpecialSammi Cohen
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CrushJames Franco
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 Disaster ArtistJordan Vogt-Roberts
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Kings of SummerGenndy Tartakovsky
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hotel Transylvania 2Paul Brickman
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Risky BusinessJohn Hamburg
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Why Him?Miguel Arteta
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad DaySimon J. Smith
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bee MovieEdward Zwick
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
About Last Night...Jocelyn Moorhouse
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 Fabulous FourKirk Jones
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
What to Expect When You're ExpectingHoward Storm
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Once BittenJosephine Decker
Director
1 film together · 5.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Chasing SummerJames Ponsoldt
Director
1 film together · 4.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SummeringLarry Charles
Director
1 film together · 4.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dicks: The MusicalChelsea Peretti
Director
1 film together · 3.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
First Time Female DirectorSix 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
Crush
as Angie Evans
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
What to Expect When You're Expecting
as Herself
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
A Parks and Recreation Special
as Tammy II
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Risky Business
as Call Girl
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
A Parks and Recreation Special
as Tammy II
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. Megan Mullally 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
43 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
18 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
A Parks and Recreation Special
as Tammy II
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Sovereign
as Beverly
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
What to Expect When You're Expecting
as Herself
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Sovereign
as Beverly
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
A Parks and Recreation Special
as Tammy II
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Bee Movie
as Trudy (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Anywhere but Here
as Woman Buying Car
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Bee Movie
as Trudy (voice)
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
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Reference
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