Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1198
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Patrick Sabongui 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.
Patrick Sabongui appears in 29 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Patrick. Watchmen is the clearest case: a film rated 7.4 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 crime, thriller, action. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Jaume Collet-Serra, Kevin Fair, Adam Stein and others, Patrick Sabongui 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.
Watchmen (2009) as Knot Top Gang Leader · 300 (2007) as Persian General · Black Adam (2022) as Rami
Career snapshot
Ranked #1198 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
29
2003–2026
Career length
23 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.4
Watchmen
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.3
Watchmen
Most frequent director
Zack Snyder
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Zack Snyder
Most common genre
Action
19 titles
Average runtime
1h 48m
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
6.4
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
2000s
6.4 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Watchmen, Whiteout, The Day the Earth Stood Still — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.4
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
6.3
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2000s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Watchmen, Whiteout, The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Most productive era
2010s
19 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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 5.71 film | 6.27 films | 6.33 films |
| Action | 6.54 films | 6.114 films | 6.81 film |
| Thriller | 5.72 films | 5.88 films | 5.91 film |
| Comedy | — | 6.25 films | 6.42 films |
| Crime | 5.61 film | 5.92 films | 5.91 film |
| Romance | — | 6.21 film | 6.33 films |
| Horror | — | 6.12 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2003Timeline
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Jimmy Gomez.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2007300
7.4 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
2026In Cold Light
The current state of the argument, as Sef.
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.
29 of 29 films
as Knot Top Gang Leader
Directed by Zack Snyder
as Persian General
Directed by Zack Snyder
as Hassan
Directed by Unknown
as Rami
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra
as Peter
Directed by Kevin Fair
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
Knot Top Gang Leader
Watchmen (2009)
Performance score7.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Knot Top Gang Leader gives Patrick Sabongui a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Persian General
300 (2007)
Performance score7.2
300 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Persian General is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Hassan
Breaking Fast (2020)
Performance score6.8
Breaking Fast asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Hassan is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Rami
Black Adam (2022)
Performance score6.7
Black Adam asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Rami 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 Knot Top Gang Leader
Start here. Watchmen is the clearest statement of what Patrick Sabongui does — accessible, 163 minutes, and rated 7.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Patrick 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.
300 (2007)
Same director as Watchmen, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Breaking Fast (2020)
A deliberate change of key after 300 — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Black Adam (2022)
A deliberate change of key after Breaking Fast — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
We Need a Little Christmas (2022)
A deliberate change of key after Black Adam — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Zack Snyder
Director
3 films together
Notably Watchmen
Richard Donner
Director
1 film together
Notably Timeline
Scott Derrickson
Director
1 film together
Notably The Day the Earth Stood Still
Joseph Kosinski
Director
1 film together
Notably TRON: Legacy
Tarsem Singh
Director
1 film together
Notably Immortals
McG
Director
1 film together
Notably This Means War
Drew Goddard
Director
1 film together
Notably The Cabin in the Woods
Roland Emmerich
Director
1 film together
Notably White House Down
Uwe Boll
Director
1 film together
Notably Assault on Wall Street
Gareth Edwards
Director
1 film together
Notably Godzilla
Shawn Levy
Director
1 film together
Notably Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
Ekachai Uekrongtham
Director
1 film together
Notably Skin Trade
Brad Bird
Director
1 film together
Notably Tomorrowland
David Hackl
Director
1 film together
Notably Into the Grizzly Maze
Duncan Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably Warcraft
Dean Israelite
Director
1 film together
Notably Power Rangers
Shane Black
Director
1 film together
Notably The Predator
Robert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together
Notably Welcome to Marwen
Adam Stein
Director
1 film together
Notably Kim Possible
Kevin Fair
Director
1 film together
Notably We Need a Little Christmas
Jaume Collet-Serra
Director
1 film together
Notably Black Adam
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Zack Snyder
Director
3 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
WatchmenJaume Collet-Serra
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Black AdamDrew Goddard
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Cabin in the WoodsJoseph Kosinski
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TRON: LegacyRobert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Welcome to MarwenRoland Emmerich
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
White House DownDuncan Jones
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
WarcraftGareth Edwards
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GodzillaBrad Bird
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TomorrowlandKevin Fair
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
We Need a Little ChristmasDean Israelite
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Power RangersShawn Levy
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Night at the Museum: Secret of the TombMcG
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
This Means WarEkachai Uekrongtham
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Skin TradeTarsem Singh
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ImmortalsUwe Boll
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Assault on Wall StreetScott Derrickson
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Day the Earth Stood StillRichard Donner
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TimelineShane Black
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The PredatorAdam Stein
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kim PossibleDavid Hackl
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Into the Grizzly MazeSix 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
300
as Persian General
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between
as Steve
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
300
as Persian General
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Watchmen
as Knot Top Gang Leader
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Watchmen
as Knot Top Gang Leader
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. Patrick Sabongui 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
23 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.
Action Legend
Awarded
19 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
Watchmen
as Knot Top Gang Leader
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Watchmen
as Knot Top Gang Leader
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between
as Steve
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Cabin in the Woods
as Elevator Guard
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Watchmen
as Knot Top Gang Leader
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Black Adam
as Rami
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
We Need a Little Christmas
as Peter
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
300
as Persian General
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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Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
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Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
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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