Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3821
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Vanessa Bayer 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.
Vanessa Bayer appears in 13 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Vanessa. Hoppers is the clearest case: a film rated 8.1 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, quiet performance, transformation. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for romance, western, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Judd Apatow, Daniel Chong, John Early and others, Vanessa Bayer 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.
Hoppers (2026) as Diane (voice) · Maddie's Secret (2026) as Julie · DC League of Super-Pets (2022) as PB (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #3821 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
13
2013–2027
Career length
14 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.1
Hoppers
Average Nutevio score
5.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.2
Hoppers
Most frequent director
Judd Apatow
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Judd Apatow
Most common genre
Comedy
12 titles
Average runtime
1h 29m
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
6.2
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
6.0 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Ibiza, The Polka King, Office Christmas Party — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.0
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
5.9
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. Ibiza, The Polka King, Office Christmas Party.
Most productive era
2020s
8 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 | — | 6.01 film |
| Comedy | 6.05 films | 5.27 films |
| Romance | 5.82 films | 3.02 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2013Despicable Me 2
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Flight Attendant (voice).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2026Hoppers
8.1 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
The current state of the argument.
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.
13 of 13 films
as Diane (voice)
Directed by Daniel Chong
as PB (voice)
Directed by Unknown
as Flight Attendant (voice)
Directed by Chris Renaud
as Madame Jen
Directed by Nisha Ganatra
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
Diane (voice)
Hoppers (2026)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Diane (voice) gives Vanessa Bayer a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Julie
Maddie's Secret (2026)
Performance score7.8
Maddie's Secret asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Julie is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
PB (voice)
DC League of Super-Pets (2022)
Performance score7.3
DC League of Super-Pets asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. PB (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Flight Attendant (voice)
Despicable Me 2 (2013)
Performance score6.9
Despicable Me 2 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Flight Attendant (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 Diane (voice)
Start here. Hoppers is the clearest statement of what Vanessa Bayer does — accessible, 105 minutes, and rated 8.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Vanessa 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.
Despicable Me 2 (2013)
Keeps the science fiction register of Hoppers but asks for a colder reading of it.
DC League of Super-Pets (2022)
Keeps the science fiction register of Despicable Me 2 but asks for a colder reading of it.
Freakier Friday (2025)
Keeps the comedy register of DC League of Super-Pets but asks for a colder reading of it.
Maddie's Secret (2026)
Keeps the comedy register of Freakier Friday but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Judd Apatow
Director
2 films together
Notably Trainwreck
Chris Renaud
Director
1 film together
Notably Despicable Me 2
Josh Gordon
Director
1 film together
Notably Office Christmas Party
Maya Forbes
Director
1 film together
Notably The Polka King
Tom Scharpling
Director
1 film together
Notably The Postal Service Zoom Auditions
Tara Miele
Director
1 film together
Notably Wander Darkly
Josh Greenbaum
Director
1 film together
Notably Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar
Nisha Ganatra
Director
1 film together
Notably Freakier Friday
John Early
Director
1 film together
Notably Maddie's Secret
Daniel Chong
Director
1 film together
Notably Hoppers
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Judd Apatow
Director
2 films together · 2.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
TrainwreckDaniel Chong
Director
1 film together · 8.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HoppersJohn Early
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Maddie's SecretChris Renaud
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Despicable Me 2Nisha Ganatra
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Freakier FridayJosh Greenbaum
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Barb & Star Go to Vista Del MarTara Miele
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wander DarklyJosh Gordon
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Office Christmas PartyMaya Forbes
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Polka KingTom Scharpling
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Postal Service Zoom AuditionsSix 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
Hoppers
as Diane (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
Wander Darkly
as Maggie
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Hoppers
as Diane (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Hoppers
as Diane (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Hoppers
as Diane (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. Vanessa Bayer 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
12 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
Hoppers
as Diane (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Hoppers
as Diane (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Wander Darkly
as Maggie
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Freakier Friday
as Madame Jen
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Hoppers
as Diane (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Hoppers
as Diane (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Wander Darkly
as Maggie
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
DC League of Super-Pets
as PB (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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