Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#6337
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
T.I. 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.
T.I. appears in 17 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without T.I.. American Gangster is the clearest case: a film rated 7.6 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, horror, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with T.I., Paul W. S. Anderson, RZA and others, T.I. 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.
American Gangster (2007) as Stevie Lucas · Ant-Man (2015) as Dave · Dolemite Is My Name (2019) as Walter Crane
Career snapshot
Ranked #6337 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
17
2006–2023
Career length
17 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.6
American Gangster
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.6
American Gangster
Most frequent director
Peyton Reed
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Peyton Reed
Most common genre
Comedy
8 titles
Average runtime
1h 44m
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
6.3
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
7.3 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. American Gangster, ATL — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.3
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
7.3
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. American Gangster, ATL.
Most productive era
2010s
11 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 | 7.32 films | 6.53 films | 5.82 films |
| Action | — | 6.55 films | 6.52 films |
| Thriller | — | 6.12 films | 6.41 film |
| Comedy | 7.01 film | 6.36 films | 1.01 film |
| Crime | 7.32 films | 6.03 films | 6.41 film |
| Romance | 7.01 film | — | — |
| Horror | — | — | 5.11 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Career peak
2006ATL
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Rashad. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Highest rated performance
7.6 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Most recent film
2023Fear
The current state of the argument, as Lou.
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.
17 of 17 films
as Rashad
Directed by Chris Robinson
as Dave
Directed by Peyton Reed
Directed by Unknown
as Walter Crane
Directed by Craig Brewer
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
Rashad
ATL (2006)
Performance score7.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Rashad gives T.I. a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Stevie Lucas
American Gangster (2007)
Performance score7.4
American Gangster asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Stevie Lucas is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Dave
Ant-Man (2015)
Performance score7.2
Ant-Man asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dave is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Dear Mama: A Love Letter to Mom
Dear Mama: A Love Letter to Mom (2019)
Performance score7.1
Dear Mama: A Love Letter to Mom asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. The role 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 Rashad
Start here. ATL is the clearest statement of what T.I. does — accessible, 107 minutes, and rated 7.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet T.I. 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.
American Gangster (2007)
Keeps the crime register of ATL but asks for a colder reading of it.
Ant-Man (2015)
A deliberate change of key after American Gangster — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Dear Mama: A Love Letter to Mom (2019)
A deliberate change of key after Ant-Man — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Dolemite Is My Name (2019)
A deliberate change of key after Dear Mama: A Love Letter to Mom — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Peyton Reed
Director
2 films together
Notably Ant-Man
Chris Robinson
Director
1 film together
Notably ATL
Ridley Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably American Gangster
Seth Gordon
Director
1 film together
Notably Identity Thief
Doug Ellin
Director
1 film together
Notably Entourage
Etan Cohen
Director
1 film together
Notably Get Hard
Jorma Taccone
Director
1 film together
Notably Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
Tim Story
Director
1 film together
Notably Ride Along 2
Baran bo Odar
Director
1 film together
Notably Sleepless
Craig Brewer
Director
1 film together
Notably Dolemite Is My Name
RZA
Director
1 film together
Notably Cut Throat City
Paul W. S. Anderson
Director
1 film together
Notably Monster Hunter
T.I.
Director
1 film together
Notably Da 'Partments
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Peyton Reed
Director
2 films together · 7.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Ant-ManRidley 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
American GangsterCraig Brewer
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dolemite Is My NameChris Robinson
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ATLJorma Taccone
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Popstar: Never Stop Never StoppingPaul W. S. Anderson
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Monster HunterRZA
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cut Throat CityTim Story
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ride Along 2Doug Ellin
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EntourageEtan Cohen
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Get HardBaran bo Odar
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SleeplessSeth Gordon
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Identity ThiefT.I.
Director
1 film together · 1.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Da 'PartmentsSix 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
American Gangster
as Stevie Lucas
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
ATL
as Rashad
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
American Gangster
as Stevie Lucas
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Ride Along 2
as Tony David (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
ATL
as Rashad
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. T.I. 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
8 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
American Gangster
as Stevie Lucas
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
American Gangster
as Stevie Lucas
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
ATL
as Rashad
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Sleepless
as Sean Cass
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Ant-Man
as Dave
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Ant-Man and the Wasp
as Dave
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
ATL
as Rashad
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Ant-Man
as Dave
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Harry Dean Stanton
Works with the same directors — Ridley Scott
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Elliot Page
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Have your say
Community
Which T.I. performance holds up best?
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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