Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1742
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Vera Farmiga represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 28 years in, and Vera is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Vera Farmiga appears in 35 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Vera. The Departed is the clearest case: a film rated 9.0 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 crime, drama, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Michael Chaves, Tony Goldwyn, Ava DuVernay and others, Vera Farmiga 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 Departed (2006) as Madolyn · The Departed (2006) as Madolyn · The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008) as Mother
Career snapshot
Ranked #1742 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
35
1998–2026
Career length
28 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.0
The Departed
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.5
The Departed
Most frequent director
Michael Chaves
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Michael Chaves
Most common genre
Drama
17 titles
Average runtime
1h 49m
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
6.8
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
2000s
6.9 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Up in the Air, Orphan, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.9
Across 11 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.9
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. Return to Paradise.
Most productive era
2010s
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 | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.51 film | 7.09 films | 6.73 films | 4.94 films |
| Action | — | 5.91 film | 6.34 films | — |
| Thriller | 6.51 film | 7.07 films | 6.75 films | 3.62 films |
| Comedy | — | — | 6.31 film | 6.91 film |
| Crime | — | 7.83 films | 6.91 film | 3.12 films |
| Romance | 6.51 film | 6.43 films | 6.62 films | — |
| Horror | — | 6.32 films | 6.84 films | 7.04 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Kerrie.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2006The Departed
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.0 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
2026The Leader
The current state of the argument, as Bonnie Nettles.
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.
35 of 35 films
as Madolyn
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as Lorraine Warren
Directed by James Wan
as Madolyn
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as Lorraine Warren
Directed by Michael Chaves
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 40 titles · 43 total credits · active 1998–2026
The Leader
2026 · Bonnie Nettles · Executive Producer
The Conjuring: Last Rites
2025 · Lorraine Warren
Boots
2025 · TV · Barbara Cope
Ezra
2024 · Grace
Origin
2023 · Kate Medina
The Nun II
2023 · Lorraine Warren
Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Hawkeye
2022 · Self - Eleanor Bishop
Five Days at Memorial
2022 · TV · Dr. Anna Pou
The Many Saints of Newark
2021 · Livia Soprano
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
2021 · Lorraine Warren
Marvel Studios' 2021 Disney+ Day Special
2021 · Eleanor Bishop (archive footage)
Hawkeye
2021 · TV · Eleanor Bishop
Faith & Fear: The Conjuring Universe
2020 · Self
Skin
2019 · Shareen
Captive State
2019 · Jane Doe
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
2019 · Emma Russell
Annabelle Comes Home
2019 · Lorraine Warren
When They See Us
2019 · TV · Elizabeth Lederer
The Nun
2018 · Lorraine Warren
The Commuter
2018 · Joanna
The Front Runner
2018 · Lee Hart
Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams
2017 · TV · The Candidate
The Conjuring 2
2016 · Lorraine Warren
The Judge
2014 · Samantha Powell
The defining work
#1
Madolyn
The Departed (2006)
Performance score8.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Madolyn gives Vera Farmiga a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Lorraine Warren
The Conjuring (2013)
Performance score8.2
The Conjuring asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Lorraine Warren is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Mother
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)
Performance score8.2
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mother is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Madolyn
The Departed (2006)
Performance score8.1
The Departed asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Madolyn 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 Madolyn
Start here. The Departed is the clearest statement of what Vera Farmiga does — accessible, 151 minutes, and rated 9.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Vera 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.
The Departed (2006)
Same director as The Departed, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)
Keeps the drama register of The Departed but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Conjuring (2013)
A deliberate change of key after The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
Keeps the horror register of The Conjuring but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Michael Chaves
Director
3 films together
Notably The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
Martin Scorsese
Director
2 films together
Notably The Departed
James Wan
Director
2 films together
Notably The Conjuring
Jason Reitman
Director
2 films together
Notably Up in the Air
Jaume Collet-Serra
Director
2 films together
Notably Orphan
Joan Chen
Director
1 film together
Notably Autumn in New York
John Herzfeld
Director
1 film together
Notably 15 Minutes
Jonathan Demme
Director
1 film together
Notably The Manchurian Candidate
Anthony Minghella
Director
1 film together
Notably Breaking and Entering
Rod Lurie
Director
1 film together
Notably Nothing but the Truth
Mark Herman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Duncan Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably Source Code
Daniel Espinosa
Director
1 film together
Notably Safe House
David Dobkin
Director
1 film together
Notably The Judge
Corin Hardy
Director
1 film together
Notably The Nun
Gary Dauberman
Director
1 film together
Notably Annabelle Comes Home
Michael Dougherty
Director
1 film together
Notably Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Rupert Wyatt
Director
1 film together
Notably Captive State
Alan Taylor
Director
1 film together
Notably The Many Saints of Newark
Brad Baruh
Director
1 film together
Notably Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Hawkeye
Ava DuVernay
Director
1 film together
Notably Origin
Tony Goldwyn
Director
1 film together
Notably Ezra
Matt Damon
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Leonardo DiCaprio
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Jack Nicholson
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Mark Wahlberg
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Martin Sheen
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Ray Winstone
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Anthony Anderson
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Alec Baldwin
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Kevin Corrigan
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
James Badge Dale
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
David O'Hara
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Mark Rolston
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Departed
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Michael Chaves
Director
3 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do ItMartin Scorsese
Director
2 films together · 8.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The DepartedJames Wan
Director
2 films together · 7.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The ConjuringJaume Collet-Serra
Director
2 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
OrphanJason Reitman
Director
2 films together · 6.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Up in the AirMark Herman
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Boy in the Striped PyjamasDavid Dobkin
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The JudgeDuncan Jones
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Source CodeBrad Baruh
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of HawkeyeTony Goldwyn
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EzraRod Lurie
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Nothing but the TruthMichael Dougherty
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Godzilla: King of the MonstersDaniel Espinosa
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Safe HouseJonathan Demme
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 Manchurian CandidateGary Dauberman
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Annabelle Comes HomeAlan Taylor
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Many Saints of NewarkAva DuVernay
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
OriginAnthony Minghella
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Breaking and EnteringJoan Chen
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Autumn in New YorkCorin Hardy
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 NunJohn Herzfeld
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
15 MinutesRupert Wyatt
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Captive StateSix 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 Departed
as Madolyn
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Up in the Air
as Alex Goran
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 Departed
as Madolyn
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Marvel Studios' 2021 Disney+ Day Special
as Eleanor Bishop (archive footage)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Departed
as Madolyn
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. Vera Farmiga 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 | #429 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.0 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Crime, Thriller, Drama | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Martin Scorsese | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Quiet performance, Intensity, Screen presence | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 2006–2006 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Madolyn — The Departed | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | The Departed | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
The Departed
Shared directors
Martin Scorsese
Shared collections
Top 100 Crime Movies, Thriller Movies, Crime Movies, Drama Movies
Collaborators in common
Martin Scorsese · Leonardo DiCaprio · Jack Nicholson · Mark Wahlberg
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
28 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.
Drama Legend
Awarded
17 catalogue titles in drama, 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 Departed
as Madolyn
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Departed
as Madolyn
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Origin
as Kate Medina
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
as Lorraine Warren
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Departed
as Madolyn
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
as Emma Russell
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
as Mother
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Departed
as Madolyn
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 4 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
From the magazine
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Ted Levine
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Robert De Niro
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: drama and thriller
Leonardo DiCaprio
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
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Community
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Reference
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