Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#10237
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Stephanie Szostak works on transformation 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.
Stephanie Szostak appears in 6 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Stephanie. The Devil Wears Prada is the clearest case: a film rated 7.7 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are transformation, versatility, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for drama, action, science fiction. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Sean McNamara, Shane Black, Robert Schwentke and others, Stephanie Szostak 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 Devil Wears Prada (2006) as Jacqueline Follet · Soul on Fire (2025) as Susan O'Leary · Iron Man 3 (2013) as Brandt
Career snapshot
Ranked #10237 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
6
2006–2025
Career length
19 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.7
The Devil Wears Prada
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.4
The Devil Wears Prada
Most frequent director
Sean McNamara
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Sean McNamara
Most common genre
Comedy
4 titles
Average runtime
1h 54m
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
2000s
7.7 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. The Devil Wears Prada — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.7
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
7.4
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. The Devil Wears Prada.
Most productive era
2010s
4 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 | 7.71 film | 6.81 film | 7.41 film |
| Action | — | 6.42 films | — |
| Comedy | 7.71 film | 6.13 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance · Career peak
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Jacqueline Follet. 7.7 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
2025Soul on Fire
The current state of the argument, as Susan O'Leary.
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.
6 of 6 films
as Susan O'Leary
Directed by Sean McNamara
as Jacqueline Follet
Directed by David Frankel
as Brandt
Directed by Shane Black
as Katherine Mee
Directed by Cameron Crowe
as Julia
Directed by Robert Schwentke
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
Susan O'Leary
Soul on Fire (2025)
Performance score7.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Susan O'Leary gives Stephanie Szostak a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Jacqueline Follet
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Performance score7.5
The Devil Wears Prada asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jacqueline Follet is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Brandt
Iron Man 3 (2013)
Performance score6.8
Iron Man 3 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Brandt is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Katherine Mee
We Bought a Zoo (2011)
Performance score6.7
We Bought a Zoo asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Katherine Mee 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 Susan O'Leary
Start here. Soul on Fire is the clearest statement of what Stephanie Szostak does — accessible, 111 minutes, and rated 7.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Stephanie 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.
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Keeps the drama register of Soul on Fire but asks for a colder reading of it.
We Bought a Zoo (2011)
Keeps the comedy register of The Devil Wears Prada but asks for a colder reading of it.
Iron Man 3 (2013)
A deliberate change of key after We Bought a Zoo — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
R.I.P.D. (2013)
Keeps the action register of Iron Man 3 but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
David Frankel
Director
1 film together
Notably The Devil Wears Prada
Jay Roach
Director
1 film together
Notably Dinner for Schmucks
Cameron Crowe
Director
1 film together
Notably We Bought a Zoo
Robert Schwentke
Director
1 film together
Notably R.I.P.D.
Shane Black
Director
1 film together
Notably Iron Man 3
Sean McNamara
Director
1 film together
Notably Soul on Fire
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
David Frankel
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Devil Wears PradaSean McNamara
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Soul on FireShane Black
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Iron Man 3Cameron Crowe
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
We Bought a ZooRobert Schwentke
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
R.I.P.D.Jay Roach
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dinner for SchmucksSix 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 Devil Wears Prada
as Jacqueline Follet
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Soul on Fire
as Susan O'Leary
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 Devil Wears Prada
as Jacqueline Follet
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Devil Wears Prada
as Jacqueline Follet
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Soul on Fire
as Susan O'Leary
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. Stephanie Szostak 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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
4 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
The Devil Wears Prada
as Jacqueline Follet
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Devil Wears Prada
as Jacqueline Follet
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Soul on Fire
as Susan O'Leary
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
R.I.P.D.
as Julia
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Iron Man 3
as Brandt
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Iron Man 3
as Brandt
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Devil Wears Prada
as Jacqueline Follet
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Devil Wears Prada
as Jacqueline Follet
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Reference
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