Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#11705
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Steve Routman 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.
Steve Routman appears in 14 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Steve. The Wolf of Wall Street is the clearest case: a film rated 8.3 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 drama, thriller, crime. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Benoît Delhomme, Martin Scorsese, Aaron Sorkin and others, Steve Routman 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 Wolf of Wall Street (2013) as SEC Attorney #1 · The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) as David Stahl · Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) as Dr. David Shoun
Career snapshot
Ranked #11705 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
14
2009–2024
Career length
15 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.3
The Wolf of Wall Street
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
The Wolf of Wall Street
Most frequent director
Martin Scorsese
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Martin Scorsese
Most common genre
Drama
9 titles
Average runtime
1h 56m
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
6.4
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
2020s
6.6 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. Mothers' Instinct, Killers of the Flower Moon, The Mimic — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
6.6
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
6.6
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 Taking of Pelham 1 2 3.
Most productive era
2010s
8 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 | — | 7.05 films | 7.24 films |
| Action | 6.41 film | 6.31 film | — |
| Thriller | 6.41 film | 6.31 film | 6.81 film |
| Comedy | — | 6.63 films | 5.52 films |
| Crime | 6.41 film | 7.13 films | 7.41 film |
| Romance | — | 5.82 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2009The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Heckler.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
8.3 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
The current state of the argument, as Medical Examiner.
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.
14 of 14 films
as SEC Attorney #1
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as Dr. David Shoun
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as Medical Examiner
Directed by Benoît Delhomme
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
SEC Attorney #1
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Performance score8.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. SEC Attorney #1 gives Steve Routman a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
David Stahl
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
Performance score7.5
The Trial of the Chicago 7 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. David Stahl is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Dr. David Shoun
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Performance score7.2
Killers of the Flower Moon asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dr. David Shoun is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Abortion Doctor
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Performance score7.1
Inside Llewyn Davis asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Abortion Doctor 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 SEC Attorney #1
Start here. The Wolf of Wall Street is the clearest statement of what Steve Routman does — accessible, 180 minutes, and rated 8.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Steve 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.
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Keeps the drama register of The Wolf of Wall Street but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
Keeps the drama register of Inside Llewyn Davis but asks for a colder reading of it.
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Keeps the drama register of The Trial of the Chicago 7 but asks for a colder reading of it.
Mothers' Instinct (2024)
Keeps the drama register of Killers of the Flower Moon but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Martin Scorsese
Director
2 films together
Notably The Wolf of Wall Street
Tony Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
Luc Besson
Director
1 film together
Notably Arthur 3: The War of the Two Worlds
Douglas McGrath
Director
1 film together
Notably I Don't Know How She Does It
Tony Gilroy
Director
1 film together
Notably The Bourne Legacy
Joel Coen
Director
1 film together
Notably Inside Llewyn Davis
Rupert Goold
Director
1 film together
Notably True Story
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably Café Society
Cory Finley
Director
1 film together
Notably Bad Education
Aaron Sorkin
Director
1 film together
Notably The Trial of the Chicago 7
Benoît Delhomme
Director
1 film together
Notably Mothers' Instinct
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Martin Scorsese
Director
2 films together · 7.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Wolf of Wall StreetAaron Sorkin
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 Trial of the Chicago 7Joel Coen
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Inside Llewyn DavisBenoît Delhomme
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mothers' InstinctCory Finley
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bad EducationWoody Allen
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Café SocietyTony Scott
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 Taking of Pelham 1 2 3Rupert Goold
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
True StoryTony Gilroy
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 Bourne LegacyLuc Besson
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Arthur 3: The War of the Two WorldsDouglas McGrath
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
I Don't Know How She Does ItSix 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 Trial of the Chicago 7
as David Stahl
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 Trial of the Chicago 7
as David Stahl
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 Wolf of Wall Street
as SEC Attorney #1
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Wolf of Wall Street
as SEC Attorney #1
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Wolf of Wall Street
as SEC Attorney #1
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. Steve Routman 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.
Drama Legend
Awarded
9 catalogue titles in drama, 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 Wolf of Wall Street
as SEC Attorney #1
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Wolf of Wall Street
as SEC Attorney #1
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Trial of the Chicago 7
as David Stahl
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Arthur 3: The War of the Two Worlds
as Dr. Stitch
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Wolf of Wall Street
as SEC Attorney #1
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
as Heckler
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Wolf of Wall Street
as SEC Attorney #1
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Wolf of Wall Street
as SEC Attorney #1
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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Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Leonardo DiCaprio
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Robert De Niro
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Have your say
Community
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Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
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Reference
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