Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#166
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Simon Pegg represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 28 years in, and Simon is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Simon Pegg appears in 45 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Simon. Luck is the clearest case: a film rated 7.8 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 comedy, adventure, family. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with John Donkin, Christopher McQuarrie, Matt Thompson and others, Simon Pegg 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.
Luck (2022) as Bob (voice) · Hot Fuzz (2007) as Nicholas Angel · Ready Player One (2018) as Curator / Ogden Morrow
Career snapshot
Ranked #166 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
45
1999–2027
Career length
28 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.8
Luck
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.8
Luck
Most frequent director
Christopher McQuarrie
4 films together
Longest collaboration
4×
With Christopher McQuarrie
Most common genre
Adventure
22 titles
Average runtime
1h 46m
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
2000s
6.8 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Star Trek, How to Lose Friends & Alienate People — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.8
Across 9 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
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. Guest House Paradiso.
Most productive era
2010s
23 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 | — | 6.01 film | 6.12 films | 3.93 films |
| Action | — | 7.34 films | 6.911 films | 6.83 films |
| Thriller | — | 6.44 films | 6.32 films | 7.03 films |
| Comedy | 6.11 film | 7.14 films | 6.311 films | 5.04 films |
| Crime | — | 7.71 film | 5.51 film | — |
| Romance | — | 6.01 film | 6.11 film | — |
| Horror | — | 6.64 films | 5.62 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Mr. Nice.
Career peak
2007Hot Fuzz
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Highest rated performance
2022Luck
7.8 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Most recent film
The current state of the argument, as Buck (voice).
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.
45 of 45 films
as Nicholas Angel
Directed by Edgar Wright
as Curator / Ogden Morrow
Directed by Steven Spielberg
as Benji Dunn
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie
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
Nicholas Angel
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Performance score8.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Nicholas Angel gives Simon Pegg a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Bob (voice)
Luck (2022)
Performance score8.1
Luck asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bob (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Shaun
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Performance score8.1
Shaun of the Dead asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Shaun is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Curator / Ogden Morrow
Ready Player One (2018)
Performance score7.7
Ready Player One asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Curator / Ogden Morrow 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 Nicholas Angel
Start here. Hot Fuzz is the clearest statement of what Simon Pegg does — accessible, 121 minutes, and rated 7.7 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Simon 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.
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Same director as Hot Fuzz, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Ready Player One (2018)
A deliberate change of key after Shaun of the Dead — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Luck (2022)
Keeps the adventure register of Ready Player One but asks for a colder reading of it.
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
Keeps the adventure register of Luck but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
J.J. Abrams
Director
4 films together
Notably Star Trek
Edgar Wright
Director
4 films together
Notably Hot Fuzz
Christopher McQuarrie
Director
4 films together
Notably Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
George A. Romero
Director
2 films together
Notably Land of the Dead
Steven Spielberg
Director
2 films together
Notably Ready Player One
John Donkin
Director
2 films together
Notably The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild
Adrian Edmondson
Director
1 film together
Notably Guest House Paradiso
Quentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together
Notably Grindhouse
Robert B. Weide
Director
1 film together
Notably How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
Carlos Saldanha
Director
1 film together
Notably Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Michael Apted
Director
1 film together
Notably The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Brad Bird
Director
1 film together
Notably Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Greg Mottola
Director
1 film together
Notably Paul
James Griffiths
Director
1 film together
Notably Cuban Fury
Robert Hughes
Director
1 film together
Notably Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars
Terry Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably Absolutely Anything
Justin Lin
Director
1 film together
Notably Star Trek Beyond
Julius Onah
Director
1 film together
Notably The Cloverfield Paradox
Garret Price
Director
1 film together
Notably Love, Antosha
Matt Thompson
Director
1 film together
Notably America: The Motion Picture
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Edgar Wright
Director
4 films together · 7.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Hot FuzzChristopher McQuarrie
Director
4 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part OneJ.J. Abrams
Director
4 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Star TrekSteven Spielberg
Director
2 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Ready Player OneGeorge A. Romero
Director
2 films together · 5.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Land of the DeadJohn Donkin
Director
2 films together · 3.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Ice Age Adventures of Buck WildGarret Price
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Love, AntoshaRobert Hughes
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Phineas and Ferb: Star WarsBrad Bird
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mission: Impossible - Ghost ProtocolQuentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GrindhouseCarlos Saldanha
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ice Age: Dawn of the DinosaursJustin Lin
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Star Trek BeyondGreg Mottola
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PaulMichael Apted
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 Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn TreaderJames Griffiths
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cuban FuryAdrian Edmondson
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Guest House ParadisoRobert B. Weide
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
How to Lose Friends & Alienate PeopleTerry Jones
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Absolutely AnythingMatt Thompson
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
America: The Motion PictureJulius Onah
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Cloverfield ParadoxSix 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
Hot Fuzz
as Nicholas Angel
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Luck
as Bob (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
Hot Fuzz
as Nicholas Angel
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Sparks Brothers
as John Lennon (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Hot Fuzz
as Nicholas Angel
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. Simon Pegg 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.
Adventure Legend
Awarded
22 catalogue titles in adventure, 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
Luck
as Bob (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Hot Fuzz
as Nicholas Angel
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Luck
as Bob (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Inheritance
as Morgan Warner
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Ready Player One
as Curator / Ogden Morrow
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
as Benji Dunn
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Luck
as Bob (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
as Unkar Plutt
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Harvey Keitel
Works with the same directors — Quentin Tarantino
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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