Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#16395
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Patrika Darbo represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 33 years in, and Patrika is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Patrika Darbo appears in 14 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Patrika. Boy Genius is the clearest case: a film rated 7.2 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 mystery, crime, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Brett Haley, Gore Verbinski, Mike Nichols and others, Patrika Darbo 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.
Boy Genius (2019) as Dot · Rango (2011) as Delilah / Maybelle (voice) · Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) as 50's Woman
Career snapshot
Ranked #16395 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
14
1989–2022
Career length
33 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.2
Boy Genius
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.2
Boy Genius
Most frequent director
Joe Dante
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Joe Dante
Most common genre
Comedy
8 titles
Average runtime
1h 49m
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
2000s
6.8 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Charlie Wilson's War, Mr. & Mrs. Smith — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.8
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
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. The 'Burbs, Troop Beverly Hills.
Most productive era
1990s
5 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 | — | 6.53 films | 6.82 films | 6.11 film | — |
| Action | — | 5.82 films | 6.91 film | — | — |
| Thriller | 6.81 film | 5.82 films | 6.91 film | 5.61 film | 6.21 film |
| Comedy | 6.32 films | 6.52 films | 6.82 films | 7.12 films | — |
| Crime | — | 6.62 films | — | 5.61 film | 6.21 film |
| Horror | 6.81 film | 6.61 film | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1989The 'Burbs
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Suzanne Weingartner.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2019Boy Genius
7.2 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
2022Kimi
The current state of the argument, as Southern Woman (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.
14 of 14 films
as Delilah / Maybelle (voice)
Directed by Gore Verbinski
as 50's Woman
Directed by Doug Liman
as Pam Magnus
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen
as Suzanne Weingartner
Directed by Joe Dante
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
Dot
Boy Genius (2019)
Performance score7.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Dot gives Patrika Darbo a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Delilah / Maybelle (voice)
Rango (2011)
Performance score6.8
Rango asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Delilah / Maybelle (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
50's Woman
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
Performance score6.8
Mr. & Mrs. Smith asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. 50's Woman is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Pam Magnus
In the Line of Fire (1993)
Performance score6.8
In the Line of Fire asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Pam Magnus 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 Dot
Start here. Boy Genius is the clearest statement of what Patrika Darbo does — accessible, 94 minutes, and rated 7.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Patrika 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 'Burbs (1989)
Keeps the comedy register of Boy Genius but asks for a colder reading of it.
In the Line of Fire (1993)
Keeps the thriller register of The 'Burbs but asks for a colder reading of it.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
Keeps the action register of In the Line of Fire but asks for a colder reading of it.
Rango (2011)
Keeps the comedy register of Mr. & Mrs. Smith but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Joe Dante
Director
2 films together
Notably The 'Burbs
Jeff Kanew
Director
1 film together
Notably Troop Beverly Hills
Wolfgang Petersen
Director
1 film together
Notably In the Line of Fire
Chris Noonan
Director
1 film together
Notably Babe
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together
Notably Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Jan de Bont
Director
1 film together
Notably Speed 2: Cruise Control
Doug Liman
Director
1 film together
Notably Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Mike Nichols
Director
1 film together
Notably Charlie Wilson's War
Gore Verbinski
Director
1 film together
Notably Rango
Brett Haley
Director
1 film together
Notably The Hero
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Joe Dante
Director
2 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The 'BurbsGore Verbinski
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RangoDoug Liman
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mr. & Mrs. SmithWolfgang Petersen
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In the Line of FireMike 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
Charlie Wilson's WarChris Noonan
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BabeClint Eastwood
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Midnight in the Garden of Good and EvilBrett Haley
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The HeroJeff Kanew
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Troop Beverly HillsJan de Bont
Director
1 film together · 4.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Speed 2: Cruise ControlSix 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
In the Line of Fire
as Pam Magnus
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Babe
as Sheep (voice)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Boy Genius
as Dot
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Gremlins 2: The New Batch
as Yogurt Customer
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Boy Genius
as Dot
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. Patrika Darbo 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
33 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
8 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
In the Line of Fire
as Pam Magnus
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
In the Line of Fire
as Pam Magnus
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Babe
as Sheep (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Kimi
as Southern Woman (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
as 50's Woman
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
as 50's Woman
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Rango
as Delilah / Maybelle (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
as 50's Woman
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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