Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1010
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Rachael Harris 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.
Rachael Harris appears in 23 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Rachael. The Hangover is the clearest case: a film rated 7.6 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 romance, comedy, history. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Mark Waters, Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Burr and others, Rachael Harris 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.
The Hangover (2009) as Melissa · Best in Show (2000) as Winky's Party Guest · A Mighty Wind (2003) as Steinbloom's Assistant
Career snapshot
Ranked #1010 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
23
2000–2024
Career length
24 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.6
The Hangover
Average Nutevio score
6.1
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.3
The Hangover
Most frequent director
Christopher Guest
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Christopher Guest
Most common genre
Comedy
22 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
6.3
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
6.3 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Barely Lethal, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, Bad Words — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.3
Across 6 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
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. The Hangover, The Soloist, Evan Almighty.
Most productive era
2000s
14 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 | 6.52 films | — | — |
| Action | 5.92 films | 5.71 film | — |
| Thriller | 5.71 film | — | — |
| Comedy | 6.113 films | 6.36 films | 5.83 films |
| Crime | 6.02 films | — | — |
| Romance | — | 5.71 film | 5.91 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2000Best in Show
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Winky's Party Guest.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2009The Hangover
7.6 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
2024Unfrosted
The current state of the argument, as Anna Cabana.
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.
23 of 23 films
as Melissa
Directed by Todd Phillips
as Winky's Party Guest
Directed by Christopher Guest
as Steinbloom's Assistant
Directed by Christopher Guest
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Melissa
The Hangover (2009)
Performance score7.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Melissa gives Rachael Harris a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Susan Heffley
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2011)
Performance score6.9
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Susan Heffley is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Winky's Party Guest
Best in Show (2000)
Performance score6.8
Best in Show asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Winky's Party Guest is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Steinbloom's Assistant
A Mighty Wind (2003)
Performance score6.7
A Mighty Wind asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Steinbloom's Assistant 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 Melissa
Start here. The Hangover is the clearest statement of what Rachael Harris does — accessible, 100 minutes, and rated 7.6 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Rachael 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.
Best in Show (2000)
Keeps the comedy register of The Hangover but asks for a colder reading of it.
A Mighty Wind (2003)
Same director as Best in Show, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2011)
Keeps the comedy register of A Mighty Wind but asks for a colder reading of it.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (2012)
Same director as Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Christopher Guest
Director
3 films together
Notably Best in Show
Rob Minkoff
Director
2 films together
Notably Stuart Little 2
Todd Phillips
Director
2 films together
Notably The Hangover
Brett Ratner
Director
1 film together
Notably After the Sunset
Ken Kwapis
Director
1 film together
Notably License to Wed
Tom Shadyac
Director
1 film together
Notably Evan Almighty
Joe Wright
Director
1 film together
Notably The Soloist
Thor Freudenthal
Director
1 film together
Notably Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Jason Bateman
Director
1 film together
Notably Bad Words
Shawn Levy
Director
1 film together
Notably Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
Bill Burr
Director
1 film together
Notably Old Dads
Jerry Seinfeld
Director
1 film together
Notably Unfrosted
Mark Waters
Director
1 film together
Notably Mother of the Bride
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Christopher Guest
Director
3 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Best in ShowTodd Phillips
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 HangoverRob Minkoff
Director
2 films together · 5.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Stuart Little 2Joe Wright
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 SoloistJason Bateman
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bad WordsThor Freudenthal
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Diary of a Wimpy KidBill Burr
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Old DadsShawn 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 TombBrett Ratner
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
After the SunsetMark Waters
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mother of the BrideKen Kwapis
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
License to WedTom Shadyac
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Evan AlmightyJerry Seinfeld
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
UnfrostedSix 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
The Hangover
as Melissa
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 Soloist
as Leslie Bloom
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
The Hangover
as Melissa
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Starsky & Hutch
as Mrs. Feldman's Other Friend
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Hangover
as Melissa
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. Rachael Harris 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
24 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
22 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
The Hangover
as Melissa
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Hangover
as Melissa
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Soloist
as Leslie Bloom
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Haunted Mansion
as Mrs. Coleman
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Hangover
as Melissa
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
After the Sunset
as June
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
After the Sunset
as June
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Hangover
as Melissa
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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David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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