Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1523
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Paul Reiser represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 42 years in, and Paul is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Paul Reiser appears in 17 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Paul. Whiplash is the clearest case: a film rated 9.1 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 action, comedy, crime. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Yassir Lester, Paul Weitz, Susanna Fogel and others, Paul Reiser 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.
Whiplash (2014) as Jim · Whiplash (2014) as Jim · Aliens (1986) as Burke
Career snapshot
Ranked #1523 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
17
1982–2024
Career length
42 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.1
Whiplash
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.5
Whiplash
Most frequent director
Damien Chazelle
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Damien Chazelle
Most common genre
Comedy
11 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
7.0
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
7.1
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
1980s
7.2 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Beverly Hills Cop II, Aliens, Beverly Hills Cop — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.2
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.1
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2010s
3 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Spy Who Dumped Me, The Little Hours, War on Everyone.
Most productive era
2010s
8 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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.81 film | 5.91 film | 8.33 films | 6.62 films |
| Action | 7.33 films | — | 6.12 films | 6.61 film |
| Thriller | 8.11 film | — | 6.72 films | — |
| Comedy | 6.93 films | 5.91 film | 5.94 films | 6.33 films |
| Crime | 6.92 films | — | — | 6.61 film |
| Romance | — | — | 5.51 film | — |
| Horror | — | — | 5.22 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1982Diner
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Modell.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2014Whiplash
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.1 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
2024The Gutter
The current state of the argument, as Angelo.
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.
17 of 17 films
as Jim
Directed by Damien Chazelle
as Jim
Directed by Damien Chazelle
as Burke
Directed by James Cameron
as Paul
Directed by Paul Weitz
as Jeffrey
Directed by Martin Brest
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 23 of 23 titles · 26 total credits · active 1982–2025
Long Story Short
2025 · TV · Elliott (voice)
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
2024 · Jeffrey
The Gutter
2024 · Angelo
Reboot
2022 · TV · Gordon
Fatherhood
2021 · Paul
Horse Girl
2020 · Gary
The Spy Who Dumped Me
2018 · Arnie
The Kominsky Method
2018 · TV · Martin Schneider
The Little Hours
2017 · Ilario
Beyond Stranger Things
2017 · TV · Self
War on Everyone
2016 · Gerry Stanton
The Darkness
2016 · Simon Richards
Stranger Things
2016 · TV · Dr. Sam Owens
Concussion
2015 · Dr. Elliot Pellman
Whiplash
2014 · Jim
Life After Beth
2014 · Noah Orfman
Red Oaks
2014 · TV · Getty
Funny People
2009 · Paul Reiser
Mad About You
1992 · TV · Paul Buchman · Creator · Writer · Executive Producer
Beverly Hills Cop II
1987 · Jeffrey Friedman
Aliens
1986 · Burke
Beverly Hills Cop
1984 · Jeffrey
Diner
1982 · Modell
The defining work
#1
Jim
Whiplash (2014)
Performance score9.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Jim gives Paul Reiser a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Jim
Whiplash (2014)
Performance score8.8
Whiplash asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jim is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Burke
Aliens (1986)
Performance score8.1
Aliens asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Burke is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Paul
Fatherhood (2021)
Performance score7.3
Fatherhood asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Paul 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 Jim
Start here. Whiplash is the clearest statement of what Paul Reiser does — accessible, 106 minutes, and rated 9.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Paul 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.
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
A deliberate change of key after Whiplash — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Aliens (1986)
Keeps the action register of Beverly Hills Cop but asks for a colder reading of it.
Whiplash (2014)
Keeps the thriller register of Aliens but asks for a colder reading of it.
Fatherhood (2021)
Keeps the drama register of Whiplash but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Damien Chazelle
Director
2 films together
Notably Whiplash
Barry Levinson
Director
1 film together
Notably Diner
Martin Brest
Director
1 film together
Notably Beverly Hills Cop
James Cameron
Director
1 film together
Notably Aliens
Tony Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably Beverly Hills Cop II
Judd Apatow
Director
1 film together
Notably Funny People
Peter Landesman
Director
1 film together
Notably Concussion
Greg McLean
Director
1 film together
Notably The Darkness
Susanna Fogel
Director
1 film together
Notably The Spy Who Dumped Me
Paul Weitz
Director
1 film together
Notably Fatherhood
Yassir Lester
Director
1 film together
Notably The Gutter
Miles Teller
Actor
1 film together
Notably Whiplash
J.K. Simmons
Actor
1 film together
Notably Whiplash
Melissa Benoist
Actor
1 film together
Notably Whiplash
Austin Stowell
Actor
1 film together
Notably Whiplash
Nate Lang
Actor
1 film together
Notably Whiplash
Chris Mulkey
Actor
1 film together
Notably Whiplash
Damon Gupton
Actor
1 film together
Notably Whiplash
Suanne Spoke
Actor
1 film together
Notably Whiplash
Max Kasch
Actor
1 film together
Notably Whiplash
Charlie Ian
Actor
1 film together
Notably Whiplash
Jayson Blair
Actor
1 film together
Notably Whiplash
Kofi Siriboe
Actor
1 film together
Notably Whiplash
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Damien Chazelle
Director
2 films together · 8.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
WhiplashJames Cameron
Director
1 film together · 8.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AliensPaul Weitz
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FatherhoodMartin Brest
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Beverly Hills CopPeter Landesman
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ConcussionBarry Levinson
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DinerTony Scott
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Beverly Hills Cop IISusanna Fogel
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 Spy Who Dumped MeJudd Apatow
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Funny PeopleYassir Lester
Director
1 film together · 4.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The GutterGreg McLean
Director
1 film together · 4.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The DarknessSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
1 win
1 win · latest 2015
Whiplash
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Whiplash
as Jim
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Whiplash
as Jim
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Whiplash
as Jim
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Funny People
as Paul Reiser
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Whiplash
as Jim
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. Paul Reiser has known it for a long time.”
“There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job.'”
“Not quite my tempo.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.1 | 8.9 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #330 of 681 | #2 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 4 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 2 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 6 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.1 | 9.3 |
| Genres | Drama, Music | Sci-Fi, Adventure, Drama, Thriller |
| Directors | Damien Chazelle | Christopher Nolan |
| Performance DNA | Emotional range, Drama, Quiet performance | Transformation, Screen presence, Rewatchability |
| Career timeline | 2014–2014 | 2006–2014 |
| Most iconic role | Jim — Whiplash | Professor Brand — Interstellar |
| Most rewatchable film | Whiplash | The Dark Knight |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared collections
Best Movies of the 2010s, Movies With Incredible Endings, Drama Movies
Michael Caine edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
11 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
Whiplash
as Jim
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Aliens
as Burke
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Whiplash
as Jim
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
War on Everyone
as Gerry Stanton
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Whiplash
as Jim
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Spy Who Dumped Me
as Arnie
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Whiplash
as Jim
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Whiplash
as Jim
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 3 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
From the magazine
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Christian Bale
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and thriller
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