Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#65
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Tom Kenny 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.
Tom Kenny appears in 51 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Tom. Codename: Kids Next Door: Operation Z.E.R.O. is the clearest case: a film rated 8.0 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 Derek Drymon, Adam Paloian, Jonathan A. Rosenbaum and others, Tom Kenny 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.
Codename: Kids Next Door: Operation Z.E.R.O. (2006) as Knightbrace / Mr. Wink (voice) · Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) as Mussolini / Right Hand Man / Sea Captain (voice) · The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage! (2019) as Patchy the Pirate/French Narrator/Animated SpongeBob (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #65 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
51
2001–2025
Career length
24 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.0
Codename: Kids Next Door: Operation Z.E.R.O.
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
Most frequent director
Dave Cunningham
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Dave Cunningham
Most common genre
Animation
41 titles
Average runtime
1h 21m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.9
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
2010s
7.0 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. LEGO DC Batman: Family Matters, Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Justice League vs. the Fatal Five — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
7.0
Across 14 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.9
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. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Space Chimps, Happily N'Ever After.
Most productive era
2020s
22 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 | 6.01 film | 6.81 film | 7.91 film |
| Action | 7.03 films | 7.16 films | 7.24 films |
| Comedy | 6.112 films | 6.912 films | 6.115 films |
| Crime | 6.31 film | 7.21 film | — |
| Romance | 5.52 films | 6.41 film | — |
| Horror | — | — | 6.72 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2001Dr. Dolittle 2
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Male Tortoise (voice).
Highest rated performance
2006Codename: Kids Next Door: Operation Z.E.R.O.
8.0 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2020The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2025Kiff Lore of the Ring Light
The current state of the argument, as Trevor / Additional Voices (voice).
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 SpongeBob SquarePants / Gary the Snail (voice)
Directed by Tim Hill
as Knightbrace / Mr. Wink (voice)
Directed by Tom Warburton
as SpongeBob / SpongeBot / Gary / Robo-Gary / French Narrator
Directed by Dave Cunningham
as Mussolini / Right Hand Man / Sea Captain (voice)
Directed by Mark Gustafson
as Green Arrow / Penguin / Principal (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.
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The defining work
#1
SpongeBob SquarePants / Gary the Snail (voice)
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run (2020)
Performance score8.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. SpongeBob SquarePants / Gary the Snail (voice) gives Tom Kenny a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Knightbrace / Mr. Wink (voice)
Codename: Kids Next Door: Operation Z.E.R.O. (2006)
Performance score7.8
Codename: Kids Next Door: Operation Z.E.R.O. asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Knightbrace / Mr. Wink (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
SpongeBob / SpongeBot / Gary / Robo-Gary / French Narrator
The Tidal Zone: SpongeBob Universe Special (2023)
Performance score7.7
The Tidal Zone: SpongeBob Universe Special asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. SpongeBob / SpongeBot / Gary / Robo-Gary / French Narrator is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Mussolini / Right Hand Man / Sea Captain (voice)
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
Performance score7.7
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mussolini / Right Hand Man / Sea Captain (voice) 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 SpongeBob SquarePants / Gary the Snail (voice)
Start here. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run is the clearest statement of what Tom Kenny does — accessible, 95 minutes, and rated 7.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Tom 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.
Codename: Kids Next Door: Operation Z.E.R.O. (2006)
Keeps the comedy register of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run but asks for a colder reading of it.
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
Keeps the fantasy register of Codename: Kids Next Door: Operation Z.E.R.O. but asks for a colder reading of it.
Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons (2022)
Keeps the animation register of Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Tidal Zone: SpongeBob Universe Special (2023)
Keeps the animation register of Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Mike Mitchell
Director
3 films together
Notably Sky High
Matt Peters
Director
3 films together
Notably Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons
Dave Cunningham
Director
3 films together
Notably The Tidal Zone: SpongeBob Universe Special
Jake Castorena
Director
2 films together
Notably Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Jake Kasdan
Director
1 film together
Notably Orange County
Craig McCracken
Director
1 film together
Notably The Powerpuff Girls Movie
David Zucker
Director
1 film together
Notably Scary Movie 3
Andrew R. Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably The Animatrix
Stephen Hillenburg
Director
1 film together
Notably The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
Tim Maltby
Director
1 film together
Notably Aloha Scooby-Doo!
Tom Warburton
Director
1 film together
Notably Codename: Kids Next Door: Operation Z.E.R.O.
John A. Davis
Director
1 film together
Notably The Ant Bully
Kirk DeMicco
Director
1 film together
Notably Space Chimps
Michael Bay
Director
1 film together
Notably Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Tim Burton
Director
1 film together
Notably Frankenweenie
Genndy Tartakovsky
Director
1 film together
Notably Hotel Transylvania
Peyton Reed
Director
1 film together
Notably Ant-Man
Ethan Spaulding
Director
1 film together
Notably LEGO Scooby-Doo! Blowout Beach Bash
Jonathan Dayton
Director
1 film together
Notably Battle of the Sexes
Aaron Horvath
Director
1 film together
Notably Teen Titans Go! To the Movies
Ross Venokur
Director
1 film together
Notably Charming
Cosmo Segurson
Director
1 film together
Notably Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling
Glenn Weiss
Director
1 film together
Notably The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!
Sam Liu
Director
1 film together
Notably Justice League vs. the Fatal Five
Henrique Jardim
Director
1 film together
Notably Ben 10 vs. the Universe: The Movie
Tim Hill
Director
1 film together
Notably The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run
David Silverman
Director
1 film together
Notably Extinct
Francisco Ruiz Velasco
Director
1 film together
Notably Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans
Mitch Schauer
Director
1 film together
Notably The Soccer Football Movie
Michael Cusack
Director
1 film together
Notably The Paloni Show! Halloween Special!
Mark Gustafson
Director
1 film together
Notably Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
Larry Charles
Director
1 film together
Notably Dicks: The Musical
Jonathan A. Rosenbaum
Director
1 film together
Notably Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp
Adam Paloian
Director
1 film together
Notably Go Fetch!
Derek Drymon
Director
1 film together
Notably The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Matt Peters
Director
3 films together · 7.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super SonsMike Mitchell
Director
3 films together · 6.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Sky HighDave Cunningham
Director
3 films together · 4.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Tidal Zone: SpongeBob Universe SpecialJake Castorena
Director
2 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesTom Warburton
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Codename: Kids Next Door: Operation Z.E.R.O.Mark Gustafson
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Guillermo del Toro's PinocchioGlenn Weiss
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!Francisco Ruiz Velasco
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Trollhunters: Rise of the TitansHenrique Jardim
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ben 10 vs. the Universe: The MovieTim Hill
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the RunPeyton Reed
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ant-ManAaron Horvath
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Teen Titans Go! To the MoviesEthan Spaulding
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LEGO Scooby-Doo! Blowout Beach BashAndrew R. Jones
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The AnimatrixTim Maltby
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Aloha Scooby-Doo!Stephen Hillenburg
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The SpongeBob SquarePants MovieGenndy Tartakovsky
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hotel TransylvaniaTim Burton
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FrankenweenieDerek Drymon
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePantsSam Liu
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Justice League vs. the Fatal FiveJonathan Dayton
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Battle of the SexesCraig McCracken
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Powerpuff Girls MovieCosmo Segurson
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rocko's Modern Life: Static ClingJonathan A. Rosenbaum
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Woody Woodpecker Goes to CampMichael Cusack
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 Paloni Show! Halloween Special!Ross Venokur
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CharmingDavid Silverman
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ExtinctMichael Bay
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Transformers: Revenge of the FallenDavid Zucker
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scary Movie 3Jake Kasdan
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Orange CountyJohn A. Davis
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Ant BullyMitch Schauer
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Soccer Football MovieKirk DeMicco
Director
1 film together · 5.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Space ChimpsLarry Charles
Director
1 film together · 4.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dicks: The MusicalAdam Paloian
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Go Fetch!Six 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
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
as Mussolini / Right Hand Man / Sea Captain (voice)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
as Mussolini / Right Hand Man / Sea Captain (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
Codename: Kids Next Door: Operation Z.E.R.O.
as Knightbrace / Mr. Wink (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
as Wheelie / Skids (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run
as SpongeBob SquarePants / Gary the Snail (voice)
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. Tom Kenny 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.
Career Achievement
Awarded
24 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.
Animation Legend
Awarded
41 catalogue titles in animation, 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
Codename: Kids Next Door: Operation Z.E.R.O.
as Knightbrace / Mr. Wink (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Codename: Kids Next Door: Operation Z.E.R.O.
as Knightbrace / Mr. Wink (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Kiff Lore of the Ring Light
as Trevor / Additional Voices (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Hoodwinked!
as Tommy (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Codename: Kids Next Door: Operation Z.E.R.O.
as Knightbrace / Mr. Wink (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans
as Ricky Blank (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Charming
as Blessing Fairy (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Ant-Man
as Hideous Rabbit (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
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
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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