Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1041
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Michael Imperioli represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 35 years in, and Michael is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Michael Imperioli appears in 19 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Michael. GoodFellas is the clearest case: a film rated 8.7 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, music, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Craig Brewer, Paul Schrader, Alan Taylor and others, Michael Imperioli 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.
GoodFellas (1990) as Spider · Song Sung Blue (2025) as Mark Shurilla · The Basketball Diaries (1995) as Bobby
Career snapshot
Ranked #1041 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
19
1990–2025
Career length
35 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.7
GoodFellas
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.4
GoodFellas
Most frequent director
Spike Lee
4 films together
Longest collaboration
4×
With Spike Lee
Most common genre
Drama
14 titles
Average runtime
1h 54m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.1
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
6.9
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
1990s
6.9 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Summer of Sam, Last Man Standing, Trees Lounge — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.9
Across 10 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.9
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. Summer of Sam, Last Man Standing, Trees Lounge.
Most productive era
1990s
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 | 7.08 films | 7.11 film | — | 6.75 films |
| Action | 6.82 films | 6.21 film | 5.61 film | 7.31 film |
| Thriller | 6.82 films | — | 5.82 films | — |
| Comedy | 7.02 films | 6.21 film | — | — |
| Crime | 7.17 films | — | — | 6.31 film |
| Romance | 6.41 film | — | — | 7.41 film |
| Horror | 6.51 film | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance · Career peak
1990GoodFellas
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Spider. 8.7 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
2025Song Sung Blue
The current state of the argument, as Mark Shurilla.
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 Spider
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as Mark Shurilla
Directed by Craig Brewer
as Len Fenerman
Directed by Peter Jackson
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
Spider
GoodFellas (1990)
Performance score8.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Spider gives Michael Imperioli a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Mark Shurilla
Song Sung Blue (2025)
Performance score7.7
Song Sung Blue asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mark Shurilla is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Jay Ford
The Last Full Measure (2020)
Performance score7.2
The Last Full Measure asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jay Ford is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Bobby
The Basketball Diaries (1995)
Performance score7.2
The Basketball Diaries asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bobby 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 Spider
Start here. GoodFellas is the clearest statement of what Michael Imperioli does — accessible, 145 minutes, and rated 8.7 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Michael 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 Basketball Diaries (1995)
Keeps the crime register of GoodFellas but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Lovely Bones (2009)
Keeps the drama register of The Basketball Diaries but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Last Full Measure (2020)
Keeps the drama register of The Lovely Bones but asks for a colder reading of it.
Song Sung Blue (2025)
Keeps the drama register of The Last Full Measure but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Spike Lee
Director
4 films together
Notably Clockers
Martin Scorsese
Director
1 film together
Notably GoodFellas
Abel Ferrara
Director
1 film together
Notably The Addiction
Albert Hughes
Director
1 film together
Notably Dead Presidents
Michael Bay
Director
1 film together
Notably Bad Boys
Steve Buscemi
Director
1 film together
Notably Trees Lounge
Walter Hill
Director
1 film together
Notably Last Man Standing
Bibo Bergeron
Director
1 film together
Notably Shark Tale
Peter Jackson
Director
1 film together
Notably The Lovely Bones
Regina King
Director
1 film together
Notably One Night in Miami...
Todd Robinson
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last Full Measure
Alan Taylor
Director
1 film together
Notably The Many Saints of Newark
Paul Schrader
Director
1 film together
Notably Oh, Canada
Craig Brewer
Director
1 film together
Notably Song Sung Blue
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Spike Lee
Director
4 films together · 6.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
ClockersMartin Scorsese
Director
1 film together · 8.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GoodFellasCraig Brewer
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Song Sung BlueTodd Robinson
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 Last Full MeasurePeter 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 BonesRegina King
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
One Night in Miami...Michael Bay
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bad BoysSteve Buscemi
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Trees LoungeAlbert Hughes
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dead PresidentsAbel Ferrara
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 AddictionWalter Hill
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Last Man StandingAlan Taylor
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 Many Saints of NewarkBibo Bergeron
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Shark TalePaul Schrader
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Oh, CanadaSix 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
GoodFellas
as Spider
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Song Sung Blue
as Mark Shurilla
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
GoodFellas
as Spider
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Last Full Measure
as Jay Ford
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
GoodFellas
as Spider
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. Michael Imperioli 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
35 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
14 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
GoodFellas
as Spider
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
GoodFellas
as Spider
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Song Sung Blue
as Mark Shurilla
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Clockers
as Detective Jo-Jo
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
GoodFellas
as Spider
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Primal
as Paul Freed
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
GoodFellas
as Spider
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
GoodFellas
as Spider
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
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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
Leonardo DiCaprio
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Robert De Niro
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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