Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#961
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Stephen Merchant 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.
Stephen Merchant appears in 18 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Stephen. Jojo Rabbit is the clearest case: a film rated 8.1 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 documentary, drama, fantasy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Richard Fitzpatrick, Kate Winslet, Doug Liman and others, Stephen Merchant 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.
Jojo Rabbit (2019) as Deertz · Logan (2017) as Caliban · Hot Fuzz (2007) as Peter Ian Staker
Career snapshot
Ranked #961 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
18
2007–2026
Career length
19 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.1
Jojo Rabbit
Average Nutevio score
6.0
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
Jojo Rabbit
Most frequent director
Ricky Gervais
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Ricky Gervais
Most common genre
Comedy
12 titles
Average runtime
1h 42m
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
2000s
7.0 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. The Invention of Lying, Hot Fuzz — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.0
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.9
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 Invention of Lying, Hot Fuzz.
Most productive era
2010s
12 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 | — | 7.14 films | 6.61 film |
| Action | 7.71 film | 7.12 films | — |
| Thriller | — | 6.21 film | — |
| Comedy | 7.02 films | 6.09 films | 5.21 film |
| Crime | 7.71 film | 6.21 film | 5.21 film |
| Romance | 6.21 film | 5.62 films | 5.21 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2007Hot Fuzz
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Peter Ian Staker.
Career peak
2017Logan
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Highest rated performance
2019Jojo Rabbit
8.1 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Most recent film
2026England 2006: The Golden Generation
The current state of the argument, as Self/Peter Crouch (archive footage).
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.
18 of 18 films
as Caliban
Directed by James Mangold
as Deertz
Directed by Taika Waititi
as Miika (voice)
Directed by Unknown
as Peter Ian Staker
Directed by Edgar Wright
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
Caliban
Logan (2017)
Performance score8.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Caliban gives Stephen Merchant a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Deertz
Jojo Rabbit (2019)
Performance score7.8
Jojo Rabbit asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Deertz is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Miika (voice)
A Boy Called Christmas (2021)
Performance score7.6
A Boy Called Christmas asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Miika (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Peter Ian Staker
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Performance score7.5
Hot Fuzz asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Peter Ian Staker 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 Caliban
Start here. Logan is the clearest statement of what Stephen Merchant does — accessible, 137 minutes, and rated 8.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Stephen 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.
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Keeps the action register of Logan but asks for a colder reading of it.
Jojo Rabbit (2019)
Keeps the comedy register of Hot Fuzz but asks for a colder reading of it.
Fighting with My Family (2019)
Keeps the comedy register of Jojo Rabbit but asks for a colder reading of it.
A Boy Called Christmas (2021)
A deliberate change of key after Fighting with My Family — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Ricky Gervais
Director
2 films together
Notably Cemetery Junction
Edgar Wright
Director
1 film together
Notably Hot Fuzz
Michael Lembeck
Director
1 film together
Notably Tooth Fairy
Bobby Farrelly
Director
1 film together
Notably Hall Pass
Kelly Asbury
Director
1 film together
Notably Gnomeo & Juliet
Dan Mazer
Director
1 film together
Notably I Give It a Year
Brett Ratner
Director
1 film together
Notably Movie 43
Jeffrey Blitz
Director
1 film together
Notably Table 19
James Mangold
Director
1 film together
Notably Logan
Fede Álvarez
Director
1 film together
Notably The Girl in the Spider's Web
John Stevenson
Director
1 film together
Notably Sherlock Gnomes
Stephen Merchant
Director
1 film together
Notably Fighting with My Family
Taika Waititi
Director
1 film together
Notably Jojo Rabbit
Doug Liman
Director
1 film together
Notably Locked Down
Kate Winslet
Director
1 film together
Notably Goodbye June
Richard Fitzpatrick
Director
1 film together
Notably England 2006: The Golden Generation
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Ricky Gervais
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Cemetery JunctionTaika Waititi
Director
1 film together · 8.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jojo RabbitJames Mangold
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LoganEdgar Wright
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hot FuzzStephen Merchant
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fighting with My FamilyKate Winslet
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Goodbye JuneFede Álvarez
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Girl in the Spider's WebJeffrey Blitz
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Table 19Kelly Asbury
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gnomeo & JulietJohn Stevenson
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sherlock GnomesBobby Farrelly
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hall PassDan Mazer
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
I Give It a YearMichael Lembeck
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Tooth FairyDoug Liman
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Locked DownBrett Ratner
Director
1 film together · 4.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Movie 43Richard Fitzpatrick
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
England 2006: The Golden GenerationSix 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
Logan
as Caliban
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
A Boy Called Christmas
as Miika (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
Jojo Rabbit
as Deertz
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Hot Fuzz
as Peter Ian Staker
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Logan
as Caliban
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. Stephen Merchant 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
12 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
Logan
as Caliban
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Hot Fuzz
as Peter Ian Staker
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
A Boy Called Christmas
as Miika (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Sherlock Gnomes
as Paris (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Logan
as Caliban
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Hot Fuzz
as Peter Ian Staker
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Jojo Rabbit
as Deertz
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Logan
as Caliban
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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Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
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Jamie Harris
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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