Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#4106
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Serge Houde represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 28 years in, and Serge is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Serge Houde appears in 21 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Serge. The Age of Adaline is the clearest case: a film rated 7.5 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, tv movie. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Linda-Lisa Hayter, Martin Wood, Mark Jean and others, Serge Houde 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 Age of Adaline (2015) as Good Samaritan · Five More Minutes (2021) as Edward · 50/50 (2011) as Richard Lerner
Career snapshot
Ranked #4106 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
21
1993–2021
Career length
28 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
The Age of Adaline
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.5
The Age of Adaline
Most frequent director
Linda-Lisa Hayter
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Linda-Lisa Hayter
Most common genre
Romance
9 titles
Average runtime
1h 36m
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
6.5
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
2010s
6.8 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Nine Lives, The Age of Adaline, 50/50 — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.8
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.8
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. The Jackal, Look Who's Talking Now!.
Most productive era
2020s
9 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 | — | 6.13 films | 7.32 films | 6.82 films |
| Action | 6.41 film | 5.83 films | — | 5.41 film |
| Thriller | 6.41 film | 6.14 films | — | — |
| Comedy | 5.41 film | 5.12 films | 6.63 films | 6.43 films |
| Crime | 6.41 film | 6.32 films | — | 5.41 film |
| Romance | 5.41 film | — | 7.51 film | 6.67 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Maitre D'.
Highest rated performance
7.5 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2021Ruby
The current state of the argument, as Jack Landry.
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.
21 of 21 films
as Edward
Directed by Linda-Lisa Hayter
as Good Samaritan
Directed by Lee Toland Krieger
as Richard Lerner
Directed by Jonathan Levine
as Walter Fairchild
Directed by Unknown
as Bill Pendergast
Directed by Martin Wood
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
Edward
Five More Minutes (2021)
Performance score7.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Edward gives Serge Houde a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Good Samaritan
The Age of Adaline (2015)
Performance score7.3
The Age of Adaline asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Good Samaritan is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Richard Lerner
50/50 (2011)
Performance score7.3
50/50 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Richard Lerner is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Walter Fairchild
A Little Daytime Drama (2021)
Performance score7.0
A Little Daytime Drama asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Walter Fairchild 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 Edward
Start here. Five More Minutes is the clearest statement of what Serge Houde does — accessible, 84 minutes, and rated 7.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Serge 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.
50/50 (2011)
Keeps the comedy register of Five More Minutes but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Age of Adaline (2015)
Keeps the drama register of 50/50 but asks for a colder reading of it.
A Little Daytime Drama (2021)
Keeps the romance register of The Age of Adaline but asks for a colder reading of it.
A Christmas Proposal (2021)
Keeps the romance register of A Little Daytime Drama but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Michael Caton-Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably The Jackal
Frank Oz
Director
1 film together
Notably The Score
Ron Underwood
Director
1 film together
Notably The Adventures of Pluto Nash
John Woo
Director
1 film together
Notably Paycheck
Brian Robbins
Director
1 film together
Notably The Perfect Score
Christian Duguay
Director
1 film together
Notably Boot Camp
Scott Derrickson
Director
1 film together
Notably The Day the Earth Stood Still
Jonathan Levine
Director
1 film together
Notably 50/50
Lee Toland Krieger
Director
1 film together
Notably The Age of Adaline
Barry Sonnenfeld
Director
1 film together
Notably Nine Lives
Terry Ingram
Director
1 film together
Notably Christmas She Wrote
Pat Williams
Director
1 film together
Notably Love in Winterland
Michael Dowse
Director
1 film together
Notably Coffee & Kareem
Gail Harvey
Director
1 film together
Notably Ruby
Mark Jean
Director
1 film together
Notably The Baker's Son
Martin Wood
Director
1 film together
Notably A Christmas Proposal
Linda-Lisa Hayter
Director
1 film together
Notably Five More Minutes
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Lee Toland Krieger
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Age of AdalineLinda-Lisa Hayter
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Five More MinutesJonathan Levine
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
50/50Frank Oz
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 ScoreMartin Wood
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 Christmas ProposalPat Williams
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Love in WinterlandGail Harvey
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RubyMichael Caton-Jones
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The JackalMark Jean
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Baker's SonJohn Woo
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PaycheckTerry Ingram
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Christmas She WroteChristian Duguay
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Boot CampBarry Sonnenfeld
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Nine LivesBrian Robbins
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 Perfect ScoreScott Derrickson
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 Day the Earth Stood StillMichael Dowse
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Coffee & KareemRon Underwood
Director
1 film together · 4.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Adventures of Pluto NashSix 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 Age of Adaline
as Good Samaritan
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 Age of Adaline
as Good Samaritan
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 Age of Adaline
as Good Samaritan
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Age of Adaline
as Good Samaritan
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Five More Minutes
as Edward
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. Serge Houde 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
28 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.
Romance Legend
Awarded
9 catalogue titles in romance, 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 Age of Adaline
as Good Samaritan
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Score
as Laurent
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Age of Adaline
as Good Samaritan
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Score
as Laurent
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Score
as Laurent
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Paycheck
as William Dekker
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Five More Minutes
as Edward
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Day the Earth Stood Still
as Scientist #1
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Morgan Freeman
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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