Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#6414
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Paul Whitehouse 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.
Paul Whitehouse appears in 13 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Paul. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the clearest case: a film rated 8.3 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 documentary, family, animation. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Eliot Rausch, Armando Iannucci, James Marsh and others, Paul Whitehouse 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.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) as Sir Cadogan · Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic (2026) as Self (uncredited) · Corpse Bride (2005) as William Van Dort / Mayhew / Paul the Head Waiter (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #6414 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
13
2004–2026
Career length
22 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.3
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Most frequent director
Armando Iannucci
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Armando Iannucci
Most common genre
Fantasy
5 titles
Average runtime
1h 29m
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
7.8 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Corpse Bride, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Finding Neverland — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.8
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
7.6
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. Corpse Bride, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Finding Neverland.
Most productive era
2010s
7 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 | 7.31 film | 6.33 films | — |
| Comedy | — | 6.33 films | 0.01 film |
| Crime | — | 5.61 film | — |
| Romance | 7.71 film | — | — |
| Horror | — | 6.41 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2004Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Sir Cadogan. 8.3 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
2026Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic
The current state of the argument, as Self (uncredited).
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.
13 of 13 films
as Sir Cadogan
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
as William Van Dort / Mayhew / Paul the Head Waiter (voice)
Directed by Tim Burton
as Tony Matthews
Directed by Jeremy Dyson
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
Sir Cadogan
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Performance score8.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Sir Cadogan gives Paul Whitehouse a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
William Van Dort / Mayhew / Paul the Head Waiter (voice)
Corpse Bride (2005)
Performance score7.7
Corpse Bride asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. William Van Dort / Mayhew / Paul the Head Waiter (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Self (uncredited)
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic (2026)
Performance score7.6
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Stage Manager
Finding Neverland (2004)
Performance score7.2
Finding Neverland asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Stage Manager 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 Sir Cadogan
Start here. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the clearest statement of what Paul Whitehouse does — accessible, 141 minutes, and rated 8.3 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.
Finding Neverland (2004)
Keeps the fantasy register of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban but asks for a colder reading of it.
Corpse Bride (2005)
Keeps the fantasy register of Finding Neverland but asks for a colder reading of it.
Ghost Stories (2018)
A deliberate change of key after Corpse Bride — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic (2026)
A deliberate change of key after Ghost Stories — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Tim Burton
Director
2 films together
Notably Corpse Bride
Armando Iannucci
Director
2 films together
Notably The Death of Stalin
Marc Forster
Director
1 film together
Notably Finding Neverland
Alfonso Cuarón
Director
1 film together
Notably Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
David Koepp
Director
1 film together
Notably Mortdecai
James Bobin
Director
1 film together
Notably Alice Through the Looking Glass
Jeremy Dyson
Director
1 film together
Notably Ghost Stories
James Marsh
Director
1 film together
Notably King of Thieves
Eliot Rausch
Director
1 film together
Notably Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Tim Burton
Director
2 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Corpse BrideArmando Iannucci
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 Death of StalinAlfonso Cuarón
Director
1 film together · 8.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of AzkabanEliot Rausch
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the MagicMarc Forster
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Finding NeverlandJames Bobin
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Alice Through the Looking GlassJeremy Dyson
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ghost StoriesJames Marsh
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
King of ThievesDavid Koepp
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MortdecaiSix 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
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
as Sir Cadogan
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Corpse Bride
as William Van Dort / Mayhew / Paul the Head Waiter (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
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
as Sir Cadogan
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
as Sir Cadogan
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
as Sir Cadogan
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 Whitehouse 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
22 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.
Fantasy Legend
Awarded
5 catalogue titles in fantasy, 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
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
as Sir Cadogan
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
as Sir Cadogan
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Corpse Bride
as William Van Dort / Mayhew / Paul the Head Waiter (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
as Sir Cadogan
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
as Sir Cadogan
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
as Sir Cadogan
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Death of Stalin
as Anastas Mikoyan
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
as Sir Cadogan
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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