Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#9505
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Sam Medina 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.
Sam Medina appears in 24 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Sam. Alita: Battle Angel is the clearest case: a film rated 7.3 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 mystery, science fiction, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Lisa Joy, Michael Dowse, Robert Rodriguez and others, Sam Medina 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.
Alita: Battle Angel (2019) as Stinger · Looper (2012) as Chinese Thug (uncredited) · Venom (2018) as Shakedown Thug
Career snapshot
Ranked #9505 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
24
2009–2021
Career length
12 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.3
Alita: Battle Angel
Average Nutevio score
6.1
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.3
Alita: Battle Angel
Most frequent director
Robert Rodriguez
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Robert Rodriguez
Most common genre
Action
18 titles
Average runtime
1h 47m
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
6.2
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
2020s
6.5 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. Reminiscence — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
6.5
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
6.5
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. Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.
Most productive era
2010s
21 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 | 6.21 film | 5.88 films | — |
| Action | 5.91 film | 6.117 films | — |
| Thriller | 5.91 film | 6.18 films | 6.51 film |
| Comedy | — | 6.27 films | — |
| Crime | 6.21 film | 6.16 films | — |
| Romance | — | 6.41 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2009Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Madame Truska's Man (uncredited).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
7.3 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
2021Reminiscence
The current state of the argument, as Falks.
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.
24 of 24 films
as Stinger
Directed by Robert Rodriguez
as Chinese Thug (uncredited)
Directed by Rian Johnson
as Shakedown Thug
Directed by Ruben Fleischer
as Goon (uncredited)
Directed by Michael Dowse
as Falks
Directed by Lisa Joy
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
Stinger
Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
Performance score7.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Stinger gives Sam Medina a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Chinese Thug (uncredited)
Looper (2012)
Performance score6.8
Looper asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Chinese Thug (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Shakedown Thug
Venom (2018)
Performance score6.7
Venom asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Shakedown Thug is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Goon (uncredited)
Stuber (2019)
Performance score6.6
Stuber asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Goon (uncredited) 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 Stinger
Start here. Alita: Battle Angel is the clearest statement of what Sam Medina does — accessible, 122 minutes, and rated 7.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Sam 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.
Looper (2012)
Keeps the action register of Alita: Battle Angel but asks for a colder reading of it.
Venom (2018)
Keeps the action register of Looper but asks for a colder reading of it.
Stuber (2019)
Keeps the action register of Venom but asks for a colder reading of it.
Reminiscence (2021)
A deliberate change of key after Stuber — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Robert Rodriguez
Director
2 films together
Notably Alita: Battle Angel
Werner Herzog
Director
1 film together
Notably Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Paul Weitz
Director
1 film together
Notably Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
Michael Jai White
Director
1 film together
Notably Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown
Oliver Stone
Director
1 film together
Notably Savages
Rian Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably Looper
John Hyams
Director
1 film together
Notably Dragon Eyes
Antoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together
Notably Olympus Has Fallen
Ric Roman Waugh
Director
1 film together
Notably Snitch
David Gordon Green
Director
1 film together
Notably Our Brand Is Crisis
Paco Cabezas
Director
1 film together
Notably Mr. Right
Jeff Wadlow
Director
1 film together
Notably True Memoirs of an International Assassin
Edward Zwick
Director
1 film together
Notably Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
John Stockwell
Director
1 film together
Notably Kickboxer: Vengeance
Peter Atencio
Director
1 film together
Notably Keanu
Peter Berg
Director
1 film together
Notably Mile 22
Ruben Fleischer
Director
1 film together
Notably Venom
Michael Dowse
Director
1 film together
Notably Stuber
Lisa Joy
Director
1 film together
Notably Reminiscence
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Robert Rodriguez
Director
2 films together · 6.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Alita: Battle AngelRian Johnson
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LooperRuben Fleischer
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
VenomMichael Dowse
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
StuberLisa Joy
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ReminiscenceMichael Jai White
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Never Back Down 2: The BeatdownPaco Cabezas
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mr. RightAntoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Olympus Has FallenOliver Stone
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SavagesPeter Berg
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mile 22Werner Herzog
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New OrleansRic Roman Waugh
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SnitchPeter Atencio
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
KeanuEdward Zwick
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jack Reacher: Never Go BackDavid Gordon Green
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Our Brand Is CrisisPaul Weitz
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's AssistantJeff Wadlow
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
True Memoirs of an International AssassinJohn Hyams
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dragon EyesJohn Stockwell
Director
1 film together · 5.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kickboxer: VengeanceSix 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
Alita: Battle Angel
as Stinger
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Mr. Right
as Thug
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Alita: Battle Angel
as Stinger
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
as DC Policeman #2 (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Alita: Battle Angel
as Stinger
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. Sam Medina 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.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Action Legend
Awarded
18 catalogue titles in action, 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
Reminiscence
as Falks
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Looper
as Chinese Thug (uncredited)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Mr. Right
as Thug
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Reminiscence
as Falks
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Alita: Battle Angel
as Stinger
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Alita: Battle Angel
as Stinger
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Mr. Right
as Thug
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
True Memoirs of an International Assassin
as Mercenary (uncredited)
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
Matt Damon
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Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Elliot Page
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Christian Bale
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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