Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#21930
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Nathan Cooper works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Nathan Cooper appears in 19 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Nathan. 1992 is the clearest case: a film rated 6.9 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, adventure, action. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Peter Atencio, James Bamford, Macon Blair and others, Nathan Cooper 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.
1992 (2024) as Roy · Hunter Killer (2018) as Mess Crew (uncredited) · The Internship (2026) as Ivan
Career snapshot
Ranked #21930 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
19
2016–2027
Career length
11 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
6.9
1992
Average Nutevio score
5.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
6.9
1992
Most frequent director
James Bamford
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With James Bamford
Most common genre
Action
11 titles
Average runtime
1h 35m
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
6.1
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
6.0 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. An Affair to Die For, Doom: Annihilation, The Car: Road to Revenge — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.0
Across 7 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.0
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2010s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. An Affair to Die For, Doom: Annihilation, The Car: Road to Revenge.
Most productive era
2020s
12 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 | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 5.82 films | 6.32 films |
| Action | 6.24 films | 6.27 films |
| Thriller | 6.44 films | 6.44 films |
| Comedy | 5.41 film | 3.93 films |
| Crime | 6.31 film | 6.72 films |
| Romance | 5.41 film | — |
| Horror | 5.73 films | 5.83 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2016The Late Bloomer
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Host.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2018Hunter Killer
6.9 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
2027Animal Friends
The current state of the argument, as Very Tall Passenger.
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 Mess Crew (uncredited)
Directed by Unknown
as CAT Agent #6
Directed by Ric Roman Waugh
as Very Tall Passenger
Directed by Peter Atencio
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
Roy
1992 (2024)
Performance score6.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Roy gives Nathan Cooper a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Mess Crew (uncredited)
Hunter Killer (2018)
Performance score6.8
Hunter Killer asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mess Crew (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Ivan
The Internship (2026)
Performance score6.6
The Internship asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ivan is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
CAT Agent #6
Angel Has Fallen (2019)
Performance score6.6
Angel Has Fallen asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. CAT Agent #6 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 Roy
Start here. 1992 is the clearest statement of what Nathan Cooper does — accessible, 96 minutes, and rated 6.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Nathan 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.
Hunter Killer (2018)
Same director as 1992, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Angel Has Fallen (2019)
Keeps the action register of Hunter Killer but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Internship (2026)
Keeps the action register of Angel Has Fallen but asks for a colder reading of it.
Animal Friends (2027)
A deliberate change of key after The Internship — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
James Bamford
Director
2 films together
Notably The Internship
Kevin Pollak
Director
1 film together
Notably The Late Bloomer
Ric Roman Waugh
Director
1 film together
Notably Angel Has Fallen
G.J. Echternkamp
Director
1 film together
Notably The Car: Road to Revenge
Eric Bress
Director
1 film together
Notably Ghosts of War
Brian Taylor
Director
1 film together
Notably Hellboy: The Crooked Man
MJ Bassett
Director
1 film together
Notably Red Sonja
Macon Blair
Director
1 film together
Notably The Toxic Avenger Unrated
Peter Atencio
Director
1 film together
Notably Animal Friends
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
James Bamford
Director
2 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The InternshipRic Roman Waugh
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Angel Has FallenG.J. Echternkamp
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 Car: Road to RevengeEric Bress
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ghosts of WarMacon Blair
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 Toxic Avenger UnratedMJ Bassett
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Red SonjaKevin Pollak
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Late BloomerBrian Taylor
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hellboy: The Crooked ManPeter Atencio
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Animal FriendsSix 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
Hunter Killer
as Mess Crew (uncredited)
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 Late Bloomer
as Host
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Hunter Killer
as Mess Crew (uncredited)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Angel Has Fallen
as CAT Agent #6
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
1992
as Roy
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. Nathan Cooper 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.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Action Legend
Awarded
11 catalogue titles in action, 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
1992
as Roy
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
1992
as Roy
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Late Bloomer
as Host
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
1992
as Roy
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Hunter Killer
as Mess Crew (uncredited)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Red Sonja
as Godfrie
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Late Bloomer
as Host
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Car: Road to Revenge
as Rockabilly
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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