Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#426
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Thomas Lennon represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 27 years in, and Thomas is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Thomas Lennon appears in 51 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Thomas. Meeting Your Maker is the clearest case: a film rated 10.0 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, fantasy, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with David Wain, Jerry Seinfeld, Nancy Hower and others, Thomas Lennon 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.
Meeting Your Maker (2026) as NLPB Host · Memento (2000) as Doctor · Memento (2000) as Doctor
Career snapshot
Ranked #426 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
51
1999–2026
Career length
27 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
10.0
Meeting Your Maker
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
10.0
Meeting Your Maker
Most frequent director
David Wain
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With David Wain
Most common genre
Comedy
37 titles
Average runtime
1h 39m
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
6.8
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
1990s
6.5 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Drop Dead Gorgeous — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.5
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.5
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Drop Dead Gorgeous.
Most productive era
2020s
19 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 | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 5.62 films | 6.35 films | 6.23 films |
| Action | — | 6.23 films | 6.73 films | — |
| Thriller | — | 8.72 films | 6.72 films | 5.41 film |
| Comedy | 6.51 film | 5.911 films | 6.310 films | 6.115 films |
| Crime | — | 5.52 films | 7.42 films | 6.33 films |
| Romance | — | 6.15 films | 6.24 films | 6.32 films |
| Horror | — | — | — | 5.82 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Documentarian (voice).
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 10.0 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
2026Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass
The current state of the argument, as King of the Whip Curl Remy Fontaine.
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.
51 of 51 films
as Doctor
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Doctor
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Doctor
Directed by Christopher Nolan
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 72 titles · 86 total credits · active 1998–2026
Meeting Your Maker
2026 · NLPB Host
Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass
2026 · King of the Whip Curl Remy Fontaine
Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie
2025 · Matthew (voice)
Hollywood Squares
2025 · TV · Self
Unfrosted
2024 · Harold von Braunhut
Cora
2024 · Adan
After Midnight
2024 · TV · Self - Guest
Rock, Paper, Scissors
2024 · TV · Paper (voice)
Zoey 102
2023 · Kelly Kevyn
Organ Trail
2023 · Royale Fitzgibbon
Animal Control
2023 · TV · Patrick Shaw
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
2022 · Salesman
Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again
2022 · Teddy (voice)
Reno 911!: It's a Wonderful Heist
2022 · Lieutenant Jim Dangle · Writer · Executive Producer
LEGO Star Wars Summer Vacation
2022 · Wick Cooper (voice)
Pictionary
2022 · TV
Cherry
2021 · Cherry's Dad / Dr. Whomever
Friends: The Reunion
2021 · Self
Reno 911!: The Hunt for QAnon
2021 · Lieutenant Jim Dangle · Writer · Executive Producer
Shoplifters of the World
2021 · Uncle Dick
Aquaman: King of Atlantis
2021 · TV · Nudis Vulko (voice)
Valley Girl
2020 · Rodney Bingenheimer
The Bellmen
2020 · Gunther Gochamonet
Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics
2020 · Self
The defining work
#1
NLPB Host
Meeting Your Maker (2026)
Performance score9.7
The performance the rest of the career is read through. NLPB Host gives Thomas Lennon a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Doctor
Memento (2000)
Performance score8.5
Memento asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Doctor is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Doctor
Memento (2000)
Performance score8.1
Memento asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Doctor is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Doctor
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Performance score7.8
The Dark Knight Rises asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. 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 NLPB Host
Start here. Meeting Your Maker is the clearest statement of what Thomas Lennon does — accessible, 18 minutes, and rated 10.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Thomas 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.
Memento (2000)
A deliberate change of key after Meeting Your Maker — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Memento (2000)
Same director as Memento, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Same director as Memento, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Friends: The Reunion (2021)
A deliberate change of key after The Dark Knight Rises — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Christopher Nolan
Director
3 films together
Notably Memento
Robert Ben Garant
Director
3 films together
Notably Reno 911!: The Hunt for QAnon
David Wain
Director
3 films together
Notably A Futile and Stupid Gesture
Michael Patrick Jann
Director
2 films together
Notably Drop Dead Gorgeous
Mort Nathan
Director
1 film together
Notably Boat Trip
James Ivory
Director
1 film together
Notably Le Divorce
Donald Petrie
Director
1 film together
Notably How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Angela Robinson
Director
1 film together
Notably Herbie Fully Loaded
Garth Jennings
Director
1 film together
Notably The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Peter Berg
Director
1 film together
Notably Hancock
Burr Steers
Director
1 film together
Notably 17 Again
John Hamburg
Director
1 film together
Notably I Love You, Man
Shawn Levy
Director
1 film together
Notably Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Steve Pink
Director
1 film together
Notably Hot Tub Time Machine
Mark Mylod
Director
1 film together
Notably What's Your Number?
Jake Kasdan
Director
1 film together
Notably Bad Teacher
Miguel Arteta
Director
1 film together
Notably Cedar Rapids
Kirk Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably What to Expect When You're Expecting
Steve Loter
Director
1 film together
Notably Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast
Rob Minkoff
Director
1 film together
Notably Mr. Peabody & Sherman
Michael Bay
Director
1 film together
Notably Transformers: Age of Extinction
Terrence Malick
Director
1 film together
Notably Knight of Cups
Chris Wedge
Director
1 film together
Notably Monster Trucks
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together
Notably The 15:17 to Paris
Ken Marino
Director
1 film together
Notably Dog Days
Donick Cary
Director
1 film together
Notably Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics
Rachel Lee Goldenberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Valley Girl
Ben Winston
Director
1 film together
Notably Friends: The Reunion
Anthony Russo
Director
1 film together
Notably Cherry
Ken Cunningham
Director
1 film together
Notably LEGO Star Wars Summer Vacation
Christian Hoffman
Director
1 film together
Notably Reno 911!: It's a Wonderful Heist
Matt Danner
Director
1 film together
Notably Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again
Eric Appel
Director
1 film together
Notably Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Nancy Hower
Director
1 film together
Notably Zoey 102
Jerry Seinfeld
Director
1 film together
Notably Unfrosted
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
Stephen Tobolowsky
Actor
1 film together
Notably Memento
Harriet Sansom Harris
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
3 films together · 8.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
MementoRobert Ben Garant
Director
3 films together · 5.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Reno 911!: The Hunt for QAnonDavid Wain
Director
3 films together · 5.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
A Futile and Stupid GestureMichael Patrick Jann
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
Drop Dead GorgeousBen Winston
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Friends: The ReunionSteve Loter
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeastAnthony Russo
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CherryDonald Petrie
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
How to Lose a Guy in 10 DaysNancy Hower
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Zoey 102Eric Appel
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Weird: The Al Yankovic StoryRob 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 & ShermanGarth Jennings
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyDonick Cary
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Have a Good Trip: Adventures in PsychedelicsKen Marino
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dog DaysJohn Hamburg
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
I Love You, ManMark Mylod
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
What's Your Number?Peter Berg
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HancockMatt Danner
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises AgainKen Cunningham
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LEGO Star Wars Summer VacationShawn Levy
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Night at the Museum: Battle of the SmithsonianBurr Steers
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
17 AgainChris Wedge
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Monster TrucksSteve Pink
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hot Tub Time MachineMichael Bay
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Transformers: Age of ExtinctionKirk Jones
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
What to Expect When You're ExpectingMiguel Arteta
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cedar RapidsAngela Robinson
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Herbie Fully LoadedChristian Hoffman
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Reno 911!: It's a Wonderful HeistRachel Lee Goldenberg
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Valley GirlTerrence Malick
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Knight of CupsJake Kasdan
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bad TeacherJerry Seinfeld
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
UnfrostedClint Eastwood
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The 15:17 to ParisMort Nathan
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Boat TripJames Ivory
Director
1 film together · 4.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Le DivorceSix 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 Doctor
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Secret of the Wings
as Reading Fairy (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
Meeting Your Maker
as NLPB Host
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Hot Tub Time Machine
as Customer (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Meeting Your Maker
as NLPB Host
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. Thomas Lennon 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 | #424 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 | Doctor — 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
27 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
37 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 Doctor
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Memento
as Doctor
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Knight of Cups
as Tom
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Memento
as Doctor
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Meeting Your Maker
as NLPB Host
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
as Wilbur Wright (uncredited)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie
as Matthew (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Memento
as Doctor
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
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Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
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Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Robert Downey Jr.
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Have your say
Community
Which Thomas Lennon 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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