Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#4852
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Tim Heidecker 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.
Tim Heidecker appears in 21 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Tim. The 13th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special 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, animation, mystery. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Eric Notarnicola, Hailey Benton Gates, Alex Ross Perry and others, Tim Heidecker 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 13th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special (2026) as New Amato · Brigsby Bear (2017) as Coach Brad · Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) as Whale Boat Captain Daniel Goobler
Career snapshot
Ranked #4852 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
21
2011–2026
Career length
15 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
10.0
The 13th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special
Average Nutevio score
4.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
10.0
The 13th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special
Most frequent director
Eric Notarnicola
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Eric Notarnicola
Most common genre
Comedy
16 titles
Average runtime
1h 31m
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
2010s
6.1 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Ant-Man and the Wasp, Brigsby Bear, Flower — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.1
Across 8 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.1
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2010s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Ant-Man and the Wasp, Brigsby Bear, Flower.
Most productive era
2020s
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 | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.43 films | 6.02 films |
| Action | 5.72 films | — |
| Thriller | — | 5.71 film |
| Comedy | 6.26 films | 4.910 films |
| Romance | 6.22 films | 4.91 film |
| Horror | — | 3.63 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2011Bridesmaids
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Dougie.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2026The 13th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special
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
2026Full Phil
The current state of the argument, as Chad.
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.
21 of 21 films
as New Amato
Directed by Eric Notarnicola
as Coach Brad
Directed by Dave McCary
as Whale Boat Captain Daniel Goobler
Directed by Peyton Reed
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
New Amato
The 13th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special (2026)
Performance score9.9
The performance the rest of the career is read through. New Amato gives Tim Heidecker a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Self / Rock n' Roll Gary
An Evening with Tim Heidecker (2020)
Performance score7.1
An Evening with Tim Heidecker asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self / Rock n' Roll Gary is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Coach Brad
Brigsby Bear (2017)
Performance score7.0
Brigsby Bear asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Coach Brad is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Whale Boat Captain Daniel Goobler
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
Performance score6.8
Ant-Man and the Wasp asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Whale Boat Captain Daniel Goobler 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 New Amato
Start here. The 13th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special is the clearest statement of what Tim Heidecker does — accessible, 188 minutes, and rated 10.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Tim 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.
Brigsby Bear (2017)
Keeps the comedy register of The 13th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special but asks for a colder reading of it.
Flower (2017)
Keeps the comedy register of Brigsby Bear but asks for a colder reading of it.
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
A deliberate change of key after Flower — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
An Evening with Tim Heidecker (2020)
A deliberate change of key after Ant-Man and the Wasp — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Paul Feig
Director
1 film together
Notably Bridesmaids
Nicholas Stoller
Director
1 film together
Notably The Five-Year Engagement
Tristram Shapeero
Director
1 film together
Notably A Merry Friggin' Christmas
John Francis Daley
Director
1 film together
Notably Vacation
Max Winkler
Director
1 film together
Notably Flower
Dave McCary
Director
1 film together
Notably Brigsby Bear
Peyton Reed
Director
1 film together
Notably Ant-Man and the Wasp
Chelsea Peretti
Director
1 film together
Notably First Time Female Director
Kyle Mooney
Director
1 film together
Notably Y2K
David Gordon Green
Director
1 film together
Notably Nutcrackers
Alex Ross Perry
Director
1 film together
Notably Pavements
Hailey Benton Gates
Director
1 film together
Notably Atropia
Eric Notarnicola
Director
1 film together
Notably The 13th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Eric Notarnicola
Director
1 film together · 10.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The 13th Annual On Cinema Oscar SpecialDave McCary
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Brigsby BearPeyton Reed
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ant-Man and the WaspAlex Ross Perry
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PavementsPaul Feig
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BridesmaidsMax Winkler
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FlowerJohn Francis Daley
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
VacationHailey Benton Gates
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AtropiaDavid Gordon Green
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
NutcrackersNicholas Stoller
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Five-Year EngagementTristram Shapeero
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Merry Friggin' ChristmasKyle Mooney
Director
1 film together · 5.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Y2KChelsea Peretti
Director
1 film together · 3.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
First Time Female DirectorSix 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 13th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special
as New Amato
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 Five-Year Engagement
as Negotiating Chef
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 13th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special
as New Amato
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Five-Year Engagement
as Negotiating Chef
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The 13th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special
as New Amato
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. Tim Heidecker 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
16 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
The 13th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special
as New Amato
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The 13th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special
as New Amato
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Five-Year Engagement
as Negotiating Chef
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
HIM
as Tom
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The 13th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special
as New Amato
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Ant-Man and the Wasp
as Whale Boat Captain Daniel Goobler
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Five-Year Engagement
as Negotiating Chef
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Nutcrackers
as Deputy Cox
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and drama
Edward Norton
Built a career in the same territory: comedy and adventure
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Wilkinson
Built a career in the same territory: comedy and adventure
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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