Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#18730
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Melanie Griffith represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 42 years in, and Melanie is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Melanie Griffith appears in 19 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Melanie. Melanie Griffith - Die Frau, die Hollywood überlebte 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 documentary, romance, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Jeffrey Schwarz, Nisha Ganatra, James Franco and others, Melanie Griffith 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.
Melanie Griffith - Die Frau, die Hollywood überlebte (2026) as Self (archive footage) · The Disaster Artist (2017) as Jean Shelton · The High Note (2020) as Tess
Career snapshot
Ranked #18730 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
19
1984–2026
Career length
42 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.0
Melanie Griffith - Die Frau, die Hollywood überlebte
Average Nutevio score
6.1
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
Melanie Griffith - Die Frau, die Hollywood überlebte
Most frequent director
Brian De Palma
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Brian De Palma
Most common genre
Drama
11 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
6.9
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
6.6
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
6.6 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. The Disaster Artist, The Pirates of Somalia, Automata — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.6
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.6
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. Working Girl, Cherry 2000, Body Double.
Most productive era
1990s
7 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 | 6.61 film | 6.37 films | — | 6.92 films | 7.01 film |
| Action | 6.01 film | — | 6.41 film | — | — |
| Thriller | 6.71 film | 6.33 films | — | 5.91 film | — |
| Comedy | 6.61 film | 6.34 films | 6.12 films | 7.11 film | 6.52 films |
| Crime | 6.71 film | 6.01 film | 6.41 film | — | — |
| Romance | 6.61 film | 6.63 films | — | — | 6.52 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1984Body Double
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Holly Body.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2026Melanie Griffith - Die Frau, die Hollywood überlebte
8.0 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
2026By Design
The current state of the argument, as Narrator (voice).
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.
19 of 19 films
as Tess McGill
Directed by Mike Nichols
as V
Directed by Richard Benjamin
as Honey Whitlock
Directed by John Waters
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
Self (archive footage)
Melanie Griffith - Die Frau, die Hollywood überlebte (2026)
Performance score8.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Self (archive footage) gives Melanie Griffith a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Tess McGill
Working Girl (1988)
Performance score7.3
Working Girl asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Tess McGill is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Maria Bahadur
The Pirates of Somalia (2017)
Performance score7.2
The Pirates of Somalia asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Maria Bahadur is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
V
Milk Money (1994)
Performance score7.2
Milk Money asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. V 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 Self (archive footage)
Start here. Melanie Griffith - Die Frau, die Hollywood überlebte is the clearest statement of what Melanie Griffith does — accessible, 0 minutes, and rated 8.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Melanie 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.
Working Girl (1988)
A deliberate change of key after Melanie Griffith - Die Frau, die Hollywood überlebte — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Milk Money (1994)
Keeps the romance register of Working Girl but asks for a colder reading of it.
Cecil B. Demented (2000)
Keeps the comedy register of Milk Money but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Pirates of Somalia (2017)
A deliberate change of key after Cecil B. Demented — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Brian De Palma
Director
2 films together
Notably Body Double
Steve De Jarnatt
Director
1 film together
Notably Cherry 2000
Mike Nichols
Director
1 film together
Notably Working Girl
John Schlesinger
Director
1 film together
Notably Pacific Heights
David Seltzer
Director
1 film together
Notably Shining Through
Richard Benjamin
Director
1 film together
Notably Milk Money
Lesli Linka Glatter
Director
1 film together
Notably Now and Then
Lee Tamahori
Director
1 film together
Notably Mulholland Falls
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably Celebrity
John Waters
Director
1 film together
Notably Cecil B. Demented
Rob Minkoff
Director
1 film together
Notably Stuart Little 2
Gabe Ibáñez
Director
1 film together
Notably Automata
James Franco
Director
1 film together
Notably The Disaster Artist
Nisha Ganatra
Director
1 film together
Notably The High Note
Jeffrey Schwarz
Director
1 film together
Notably Commitment to Life
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Brian De Palma
Director
2 films together · 6.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Body DoubleJames 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 ArtistNisha Ganatra
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 High NoteLesli Linka Glatter
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Now and ThenMike Nichols
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Working GirlRichard Benjamin
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Milk MoneyDavid Seltzer
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Shining ThroughJohn Waters
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cecil B. DementedJohn Schlesinger
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Pacific HeightsWoody Allen
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CelebrityLee Tamahori
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mulholland FallsSteve De Jarnatt
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cherry 2000Gabe Ibáñez
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AutomataRob Minkoff
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Stuart Little 2Jeffrey 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 High Note
as Tess
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
The High Note
as Tess
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Melanie Griffith - Die Frau, die Hollywood überlebte
as Self (archive footage)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Commitment to Life
as Self (archive footage)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Melanie Griffith - Die Frau, die Hollywood überlebte
as Self (archive footage)
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. Melanie Griffith 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
42 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.
Drama Legend
Awarded
11 catalogue titles in drama, 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
Melanie Griffith - Die Frau, die Hollywood überlebte
as Self (archive footage)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Body Double
as Holly Body
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The High Note
as Tess
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Body Double
as Holly Body
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Melanie Griffith - Die Frau, die Hollywood überlebte
as Self (archive footage)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Cherry 2000
as Edith 'E.' Johnson
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The High Note
as Tess
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The High Note
as Tess
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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