Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2616
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Ty Burrell 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.
Ty Burrell appears in 17 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Ty. Black Hawk Down is the clearest case: a film rated 7.5 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, drama, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Lucia Aniello, Andrew Stanton, Nicholas Stoller and others, Ty Burrell 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.
Black Hawk Down (2001) as TSgt. Timothy Wilkinson · Dawn of the Dead (2004) as Steve · Finding Dory (2016) as Bailey (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #2616 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
17
2001–2017
Career length
16 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
Black Hawk Down
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.4
Black Hawk Down
Most frequent director
Lucia Aniello
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Lucia Aniello
Most common genre
Comedy
11 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
2010s
6.4 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Rough Night, Finding Dory, Storks — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.4
Across 8 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.4
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. Leaves of Grass, The Incredible Hulk, The Darwin Awards.
Most productive era
2000s
9 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 5.62 films | 6.23 films |
| Action | 6.75 films | — |
| Thriller | 6.01 film | 6.51 film |
| Comedy | 5.85 films | 6.36 films |
| Crime | 6.01 film | 6.31 film |
| Romance | 5.63 films | 6.41 film |
| Horror | 7.11 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance
2001Black Hawk Down
Where our catalogue meets this career, as TSgt. Timothy Wilkinson. 7.5 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2017Rough Night
The current state of the argument, as Pietro.
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 Mr. Peabody (voice)
Directed by Rob Minkoff
as TSgt. Timothy Wilkinson
Directed by Ridley Scott
as Steve
Directed by Zack Snyder
as Bailey (voice)
Directed by Andrew Stanton
as Henry Gardner (voice)
Directed by Nicholas Stoller
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
Mr. Peabody (voice)
Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014)
Performance score7.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Mr. Peabody (voice) gives Ty Burrell a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
TSgt. Timothy Wilkinson
Black Hawk Down (2001)
Performance score7.3
Black Hawk Down asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. TSgt. Timothy Wilkinson is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Steve
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Performance score7.0
Dawn of the Dead asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Steve is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Bailey (voice)
Finding Dory (2016)
Performance score6.9
Finding Dory asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bailey (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 Mr. Peabody (voice)
Start here. Mr. Peabody & Sherman is the clearest statement of what Ty Burrell does — accessible, 92 minutes, and rated 6.7 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Ty 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.
Black Hawk Down (2001)
A deliberate change of key after Mr. Peabody & Sherman — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Keeps the action register of Black Hawk Down but asks for a colder reading of it.
Finding Dory (2016)
A deliberate change of key after Dawn of the Dead — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Storks (2016)
Keeps the adventure register of Finding Dory but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Ivan Reitman
Director
1 film together
Notably Evolution
Ridley Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably Black Hawk Down
Zack Snyder
Director
1 film together
Notably Dawn of the Dead
Paul Weitz
Director
1 film together
Notably In Good Company
Nicole Holofcener
Director
1 film together
Notably Friends with Money
Jon Turteltaub
Director
1 film together
Notably National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Louis Leterrier
Director
1 film together
Notably The Incredible Hulk
Doug Liman
Director
1 film together
Notably Fair Game
Roger Michell
Director
1 film together
Notably Morning Glory
Jim Field Smith
Director
1 film together
Notably Butter
Rob Minkoff
Director
1 film together
Notably Mr. Peabody & Sherman
James Bobin
Director
1 film together
Notably Muppets Most Wanted
Nicholas Stoller
Director
1 film together
Notably Storks
Andrew Stanton
Director
1 film together
Notably Finding Dory
Lucia Aniello
Director
1 film together
Notably Rough Night
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Ridley Scott
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Black Hawk DownZack Snyder
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dawn of the DeadAndrew Stanton
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Finding DoryNicholas Stoller
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
StorksRob 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 & ShermanDoug Liman
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fair GameLouis Leterrier
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Incredible HulkRoger Michell
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Morning GloryJon Turteltaub
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
National Treasure: Book of SecretsJames Bobin
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Muppets Most WantedPaul Weitz
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In Good CompanyIvan Reitman
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EvolutionJim Field Smith
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ButterLucia Aniello
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rough NightNicole Holofcener
Director
1 film together · 5.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Friends with MoneySix 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
Black Hawk Down
as TSgt. Timothy Wilkinson
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Finding Dory
as Bailey (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
Black Hawk Down
as TSgt. Timothy Wilkinson
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Black Hawk Down
as TSgt. Timothy Wilkinson
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Mr. Peabody & Sherman
as Mr. Peabody (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. Ty Burrell 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
11 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
Black Hawk Down
as TSgt. Timothy Wilkinson
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Dawn of the Dead
as Steve
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Finding Dory
as Bailey (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
as Connor
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Dawn of the Dead
as Steve
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
as Connor
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Morning Glory
as Paul McVee
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Incredible Hulk
as Leonard
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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Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tim Allen
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Joan Cusack
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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