Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#856
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Stephen Tobolowsky represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 39 years in, and Stephen is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Stephen Tobolowsky appears in 47 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Stephen. Memento is the clearest case: a film rated 8.9 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 science fiction, thriller, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Adam Stein, Kristoffer Polaha, Nisha Ganatra and others, Stephen Tobolowsky 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.
Memento (2000) as Sammy · Memento (2000) as Sammy · Scooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown (2017) as Andy Gunderson (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #856 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
47
1987–2026
Career length
39 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.9
Memento
Average Nutevio score
6.0
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.4
Memento
Most frequent director
Maclain Nelson
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Maclain Nelson
Most common genre
Comedy
30 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
7.0
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
6.7
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
1980s
6.9 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Great Balls of Fire!, Mississippi Burning, Spaceballs — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
6.9
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
6.9
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Great Balls of Fire!, Mississippi Burning, Spaceballs.
Most productive era
1990s
13 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 | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.92 films | 6.97 films | 6.03 films | 6.62 films | 3.02 films |
| Action | — | — | 5.93 films | — | — |
| Thriller | 7.51 film | 6.74 films | 8.72 films | 6.72 films | 0.01 film |
| Comedy | 6.91 film | 6.47 films | 5.89 films | 6.95 films | 4.48 films |
| Crime | 7.51 film | 7.04 films | 6.01 film | — | — |
| Romance | — | 6.34 films | 5.94 films | — | 4.13 films |
| Horror | — | — | — | — | 5.51 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1987Spaceballs
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Captain of the Guard.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2000Memento
8.9 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
2026Mimics
The current state of the argument, as Melvin Reinhold.
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.
47 of 47 films
as Sammy
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Sammy
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Ned Ryerson
Directed by Harold Ramis
as Max
Directed by Ridley Scott
as Andy Gunderson (voice)
Directed by Matt Peters
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 61 titles · 61 total credits · active 1987–2026
Freaks Part II
2026 · Actor
Woodstockers
2026 · Calvin
Mary the Widow
2026 · Ed
Mimics
2026 · Melvin Reinhold
Freakier Friday
2025 · Mr. Elton Bates
Poolman
2024 · Stephen Toronkowski / Blanche
Nobody Wants This
2024 · TV · Rabbi Cohen
Candy Cane Lane
2023 · Mr. Benedetto (uncredited)
Haul Out the Holly: Lit Up
2023 · Ned
Frog and Toad
2023 · TV · Dragonfly (voice)
Haul Out the Holly
2022 · Ned
Hollywood Signs
2022 · Self
The Really Loud House
2022 · TV · Walter Phillipini
Fantastic Mr. Murray
2019 · Self - Interviewee
Fractured
2019 · Dr. Berthram
The Spooky Tale of Captain Underpants Hack-a-ween
2019 · Creepy Rattlechains (voice)
Scooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown
2017 · Andy Gunderson (voice)
One Day at a Time
2017 · TV · Dr. Berkowitz
The Confirmation
2016 · Father Lyons
Mr. Peabody & Sherman
2014 · Principal Purdy (voice)
Silicon Valley
2014 · TV · Jack Barker
Toy Story of Terror!
2013 · Ron (voice)
The Goldbergs
2013 · TV · Principal Ball
The Lorax
2012 · Uncle Ubb (voice)
The defining work
#1
Sammy
Memento (2000)
Performance score8.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Sammy gives Stephen Tobolowsky a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Sammy
Memento (2000)
Performance score8.1
Memento asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sammy is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Ned Ryerson
Groundhog Day (1993)
Performance score7.8
Groundhog Day asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ned Ryerson is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Max
Thelma & Louise (1991)
Performance score7.7
Thelma & Louise asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Max 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 Sammy
Start here. Memento is the clearest statement of what Stephen Tobolowsky does — accessible, 113 minutes, and rated 8.9 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.
Thelma & Louise (1991)
A deliberate change of key after Memento — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Groundhog Day (1993)
A deliberate change of key after Thelma & Louise — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Memento (2000)
A deliberate change of key after Groundhog Day — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Scooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown (2017)
Keeps the mystery register of Memento but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Stephen Frears
Director
2 films together
Notably The Grifters
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together
Notably Memento
Maclain Nelson
Director
2 films together
Notably Haul Out the Holly: Lit Up
Mel Brooks
Director
1 film together
Notably Spaceballs
Alan Parker
Director
1 film together
Notably Mississippi Burning
Jim McBride
Director
1 film together
Notably Great Balls of Fire!
John Badham
Director
1 film together
Notably Bird on a Wire
Ridley Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably Thelma & Louise
Barbet Schroeder
Director
1 film together
Notably Single White Female
Phil Alden Robinson
Director
1 film together
Notably Sneakers
John Carpenter
Director
1 film together
Notably Memoirs of an Invisible Man
Paul Verhoeven
Director
1 film together
Notably Basic Instinct
Harold Ramis
Director
1 film together
Notably Groundhog Day
Steve Miner
Director
1 film together
Notably My Father the Hero
David R. Ellis
Director
1 film together
Notably Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco
Michael Mann
Director
1 film together
Notably The Insider
Tom Green
Director
1 film together
Notably Freddy Got Fingered
Mark Waters
Director
1 film together
Notably Freaky Friday
Dennis Dugan
Director
1 film together
Notably National Security
Nick Hurran
Director
1 film together
Notably Little Black Book
John Pasquin
Director
1 film together
Notably Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous
Chris Wedge
Director
1 film together
Notably Robots
Robert Schwentke
Director
1 film together
Notably The Time Traveler's Wife
Rodrigo Cortés
Director
1 film together
Notably Buried
Chris Renaud
Director
1 film together
Notably The Lorax
Rob Minkoff
Director
1 film together
Notably Mr. Peabody & Sherman
Matt Peters
Director
1 film together
Notably Scooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown
Kevin Peaty
Director
1 film together
Notably The Spooky Tale of Captain Underpants Hack-a-ween
Brad Anderson
Director
1 film together
Notably Fractured
Stéphane Benhamou
Director
1 film together
Notably Fantastic Mr. Murray
Reginald Hudlin
Director
1 film together
Notably Candy Cane Lane
Chris Pine
Director
1 film together
Notably Poolman
Nisha Ganatra
Director
1 film together
Notably Freakier Friday
Kristoffer Polaha
Director
1 film together
Notably Mimics
Adam Stein
Director
1 film together
Notably Freaks Part II
Guy Pearce
Actor
1 film together
Notably Memento
Carrie-Anne Moss
Actor
1 film together
Notably Memento
Joe Pantoliano
Actor
1 film together
Notably Memento
Mark Boone Junior
Actor
1 film together
Notably Memento
Russ Fega
Actor
1 film together
Notably Memento
Jorja Fox
Actor
1 film together
Notably Memento
Harriet Sansom Harris
Actor
1 film together
Notably Memento
Thomas Lennon
Actor
1 film together
Notably Memento
Callum Keith Rennie
Actor
1 film together
Notably Memento
Kimberly Campbell
Actor
1 film together
Notably Memento
Marianne Muellerleile
Actor
1 film together
Notably Memento
Larry Holden
Actor
1 film together
Notably Memento
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together · 8.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
MementoStephen Frears
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
The GriftersMaclain Nelson
Director
2 films together · 6.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Haul Out the Holly: Lit UpMatt Peters
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scooby-Doo! Shaggy's ShowdownHarold Ramis
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Groundhog DayRidley Scott
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Thelma & LouiseMichael Mann
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 InsiderAlan Parker
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mississippi BurningPaul Verhoeven
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Basic InstinctRobert Schwentke
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Time Traveler's WifePhil Alden Robinson
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SneakersMel Brooks
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SpaceballsNisha Ganatra
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Freakier FridayBrad Anderson
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FracturedRob Minkoff
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mr. Peabody & ShermanKevin Peaty
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Spooky Tale of Captain Underpants Hack-a-weenRodrigo Cortés
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BuriedChris Wedge
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RobotsMark Waters
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Freaky FridayDavid R. Ellis
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Homeward Bound II: Lost in San FranciscoChris Renaud
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The LoraxStéphane Benhamou
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fantastic Mr. MurrayBarbet Schroeder
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Single White FemaleJim McBride
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Great Balls of Fire!John Badham
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bird on a WireReginald Hudlin
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Candy Cane LaneDennis Dugan
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
National SecurityJohn Carpenter
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Memoirs of an Invisible ManJohn Pasquin
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and FabulousKristoffer Polaha
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MimicsSteve Miner
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
My Father the HeroNick Hurran
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Little Black BookTom Green
Director
1 film together · 4.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Freddy Got FingeredChris Pine
Director
1 film together · 4.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PoolmanAdam Stein
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Freaks Part IISix 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
Memento
as Sammy
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 Time Traveler's Wife
as Dr. Kendrick
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Memento
as Sammy
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous
as Tom Abernathy
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Memento
as Sammy
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 Tobolowsky has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.0 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #423 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 8.9 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Mystery, Thriller | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Christopher Nolan | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Intensity, Screen presence, Rewatchability | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 2000–2000 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Sammy — Memento | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | Memento | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Christopher Nolan
Shared collections
Top 100 Mind-Bending Movies, Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked, Thriller Movies
Collaborators in common
Christopher Nolan
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
39 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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
30 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
Memento
as Sammy
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Memento
as Sammy
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Time Traveler's Wife
as Dr. Kendrick
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Memento
as Sammy
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Memento
as Sammy
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Wild Hogs
as Charley
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Sneakers
as Dr. Werner Brandes
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Memento
as Sammy
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 5 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
theme
Top 100 Mind-Bending Movies
Features Memento
Read the collectiongenre
Mystery Movies
Features Memento
Read the collectiongenre
Best Psychological Thrillers
Features Memento
Read the collectiondirector
Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked
Features Memento
Read the collectiongenre
Thriller Movies
Features Memento
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Michael Caine
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
David Krumholtz
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Cillian Murphy
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Morgan Freeman
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Robert Downey Jr.
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Have your say
Community
Which Stephen Tobolowsky performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
Join the conversation
Reference
Continue exploring
Trending performers
Directors they work with
Collections to read next
