Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#710
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Regina King represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 36 years in, and Regina is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Regina King appears in 19 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Regina. Escape Room is the clearest case: a film rated 8.2 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 fantasy, adventure, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Gina Prince-Bythewood, Darren Aronofsky, Teyana Taylor and others, Regina King 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.
Escape Room (2025) · Boyz n the Hood (1991) as Shalika · Enemy of the State (1998) as Carla Dean
Career snapshot
Ranked #710 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
19
1991–2027
Career length
36 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.2
Escape Room
Average Nutevio score
6.1
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.2
Escape Room
Most frequent director
John Singleton
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With John Singleton
Most common genre
Comedy
9 titles
Average runtime
1h 40m
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
6.5
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
1990s
6.9 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Enemy of the State, Mighty Joe Young, Jerry Maguire — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.9
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.9
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Enemy of the State, Mighty Joe Young, Jerry Maguire.
Most productive era
2000s
6 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 | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.04 films | — | 6.91 film | 6.22 films |
| Action | 6.72 films | 5.71 film | — | — |
| Thriller | 6.72 films | — | — | 6.32 films |
| Comedy | 7.01 film | 5.96 films | 6.21 film | 6.81 film |
| Crime | 6.92 films | — | — | 6.32 films |
| Romance | 7.01 film | 6.03 films | 6.91 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1991Boyz n the Hood
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Shalika.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2025Escape Room
8.2 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
2027Children of Blood and Bone
The current state of the argument, as Queen Nehanda.
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.
19 of 19 films
as Shalika
Directed by John Singleton
as Shirley Chisholm
Directed by John Ridley
as Detective Roman
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
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
Escape Room
Escape Room (2025)
Performance score7.9
The performance the rest of the career is read through. The role gives Regina King a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Shalika
Boyz n the Hood (1991)
Performance score7.4
Boyz n the Hood asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Shalika is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Shirley Chisholm
Shirley (2024)
Performance score7.3
Shirley asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Shirley Chisholm is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Sharon Rivers
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
Performance score7.3
If Beale Street Could Talk asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sharon Rivers 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
Start here. Escape Room is the clearest statement of what Regina King does — accessible, 36 minutes, and rated 8.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Regina 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.
Boyz n the Hood (1991)
A deliberate change of key after Escape Room — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
Keeps the drama register of Boyz n the Hood but asks for a colder reading of it.
Shirley (2024)
Keeps the drama register of If Beale Street Could Talk but asks for a colder reading of it.
Caught Stealing (2025)
A deliberate change of key after Shirley — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
John Singleton
Director
2 films together
Notably Boyz n the Hood
Cameron Crowe
Director
1 film together
Notably Jerry Maguire
Ron Underwood
Director
1 film together
Notably Mighty Joe Young
Tony Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably Enemy of the State
Chris Weitz
Director
1 film together
Notably Down to Earth
Mark Rosman
Director
1 film together
Notably A Cinderella Story
John Pasquin
Director
1 film together
Notably Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous
John A. Davis
Director
1 film together
Notably The Ant Bully
Bobs Gannaway
Director
1 film together
Notably Planes: Fire & Rescue
Barry Jenkins
Director
1 film together
Notably If Beale Street Could Talk
Sean Penn
Director
1 film together
Notably Flag Day
John Ridley
Director
1 film together
Notably Shirley
Teyana Taylor
Director
1 film together
Notably Escape Room
Darren Aronofsky
Director
1 film together
Notably Caught Stealing
Gina Prince-Bythewood
Director
1 film together
Notably Children of Blood and Bone
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
John Singleton
Director
2 films together · 6.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Boyz n the HoodTeyana Taylor
Director
1 film together · 8.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Escape RoomTony Scott
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Enemy of the StateCameron Crowe
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jerry MaguireBarry Jenkins
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
If Beale Street Could TalkDarren Aronofsky
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Caught StealingJohn Ridley
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ShirleyMark Rosman
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Cinderella StoryRon Underwood
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mighty Joe YoungBobs Gannaway
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Planes: Fire & RescueSean Penn
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Flag DayJohn A. Davis
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Ant BullyJohn Pasquin
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and FabulousChris Weitz
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Down to EarthGina Prince-Bythewood
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Children of Blood and BoneSix 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
Boyz n the Hood
as Shalika
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
If Beale Street Could Talk
as Sharon Rivers
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Escape Room
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Escape Room
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Escape Room
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. Regina King 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
36 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
9 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
Escape Room
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Boyz n the Hood
as Shalika
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
If Beale Street Could Talk
as Sharon Rivers
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Higher Learning
as Monet
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Escape Room
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Mighty Joe Young
as Cecily Banks
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Ant Bully
as Kreela (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
If Beale Street Could Talk
as Sharon Rivers
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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Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
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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