Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3018
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Rick Moranis represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 43 years in, and Rick is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Rick Moranis appears in 13 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Rick. Marty, Life Is Short is the clearest case: a film rated 8.0 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 science fiction, comedy, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Josh Greenbaum, Lawrence Kasdan, Colin Hanks and others, Rick Moranis 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.
Marty, Life Is Short (2026) as Self (archive footage) · John Candy: I Like Me (2025) as Self - Actor SCTV (archive footage) · Ghostbusters (1984) as Louis Tully
Career snapshot
Ranked #3018 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
13
1984–2027
Career length
43 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.0
Marty, Life Is Short
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
Marty, Life Is Short
Most frequent director
Ivan Reitman
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Ivan Reitman
Most common genre
Comedy
10 titles
Average runtime
1h 31m
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
6.7
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
7.3 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Brother Bear — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.3
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
7.3
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. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Ghostbusters II, Parenthood.
Most productive era
1980s
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 | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.71 film | — | — | — |
| Comedy | 6.96 films | 5.93 films | — | 0.01 film |
| Romance | — | 6.51 film | — | — |
| Horror | 6.91 film | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1984Ghostbusters
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Louis Tully.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
8.0 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
The current state of the argument, as Dark Helmet.
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 Self (archive footage)
Directed by Lawrence Kasdan
as Self - Actor SCTV (archive footage)
Directed by Colin Hanks
as Louis Tully
Directed by Ivan Reitman
as Rutt (voice)
Directed by Robert Walker
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
Self (archive footage)
Marty, Life Is Short (2026)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Self (archive footage) gives Rick Moranis a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Self - Actor SCTV (archive footage)
John Candy: I Like Me (2025)
Performance score7.7
John Candy: I Like Me asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self - Actor SCTV (archive footage) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Louis Tully
Ghostbusters (1984)
Performance score7.7
Ghostbusters asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Louis Tully is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Seymour Krelborn
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Performance score7.5
Little Shop of Horrors asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Seymour Krelborn 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 Self (archive footage)
Start here. Marty, Life Is Short is the clearest statement of what Rick Moranis does — accessible, 102 minutes, and rated 8.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Rick 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.
Ghostbusters (1984)
A deliberate change of key after Marty, Life Is Short — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Keeps the comedy register of Ghostbusters but asks for a colder reading of it.
Brother Bear (2003)
A deliberate change of key after Little Shop of Horrors — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
John Candy: I Like Me (2025)
A deliberate change of key after Brother Bear — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Ivan Reitman
Director
2 films together
Notably Ghostbusters
Frank Oz
Director
1 film together
Notably Little Shop of Horrors
Mel Brooks
Director
1 film together
Notably Spaceballs
Ron Howard
Director
1 film together
Notably Parenthood
Joe Johnston
Director
1 film together
Notably Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
Mick Jackson
Director
1 film together
Notably L.A. Story
Brian Levant
Director
1 film together
Notably The Flintstones
Dean Cundey
Director
1 film together
Notably Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves
Robert Walker
Director
1 film together
Notably Brother Bear
Colin Hanks
Director
1 film together
Notably John Candy: I Like Me
Lawrence Kasdan
Director
1 film together
Notably Marty, Life Is Short
Josh Greenbaum
Director
1 film together
Notably Spaceballs: The New One
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Ivan Reitman
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
GhostbustersLawrence Kasdan
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Marty, Life Is ShortColin Hanks
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
John Candy: I Like MeRobert Walker
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Brother BearMel Brooks
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SpaceballsFrank Oz
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Little Shop of HorrorsRon Howard
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ParenthoodMick Jackson
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
L.A. StoryJoe Johnston
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Honey, I Shrunk the KidsBrian Levant
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The FlintstonesDean Cundey
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Honey, We Shrunk OurselvesJosh Greenbaum
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Spaceballs: The New OneSix 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
John Candy: I Like Me
as Self - Actor SCTV (archive footage)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Brother Bear
as Rutt (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
Marty, Life Is Short
as Self (archive footage)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
John Candy: I Like Me
as Self - Actor SCTV (archive footage)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Marty, Life Is Short
as Self (archive footage)
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. Rick Moranis 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
43 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
10 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
Marty, Life Is Short
as Self (archive footage)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Marty, Life Is Short
as Self (archive footage)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Brother Bear
as Rutt (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Ghostbusters II
as Louis Tully
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Brother Bear
as Rutt (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Brother Bear
as Rutt (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Parenthood
as Nathan Huffner
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Flintstones
as Barney Rubble
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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Tom Wilkinson
Built a career in the same territory: comedy and adventure
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Catherine Lagaʻaia
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and family
Dwayne Johnson
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and family
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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