Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#113
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Dermot Mulroney represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 38 years in, and Dermot is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Dermot Mulroney appears in 66 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Dermot. Zodiac is the clearest case: a film rated 8.8 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 action, mystery, horror. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Roland Joffé, Rachel Lee Goldenberg, William Shockley and others, Dermot Mulroney 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.
Zodiac (2007) as Martin Lee · Zodiac (2007) as Martin Lee · Shooting Stars (2023) as Keith Dambrot
Career snapshot
Ranked #113 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
66
1988–2026
Career length
38 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.8
Zodiac
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.8
Shooting Stars
Most frequent director
David Fincher
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With David Fincher
Most common genre
Drama
31 titles
Average runtime
1h 45m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
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
6.7
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. Burn After Reading, Flash of Genius, Zodiac — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.9
Across 10 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.8
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Young Guns.
Most productive era
2020s
29 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 | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 6.32 films | 6.97 films | 6.311 films | 6.211 films |
| Action | 6.71 film | 6.31 film | — | 6.34 films | 6.27 films |
| Thriller | — | 6.42 films | 7.71 film | 6.39 films | 5.716 films |
| Comedy | — | 6.63 films | 6.67 films | 6.24 films | 6.43 films |
| Crime | — | 6.42 films | 8.32 films | 6.23 films | 5.26 films |
| Romance | — | 6.34 films | 6.55 films | 6.72 films | 6.35 films |
| Horror | — | — | — | 6.52 films | 6.17 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1988Young Guns
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Dirty Steve Stephens.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2007Zodiac
8.8 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
2026November 1963
The current state of the argument, as Chuckie Nicoletti.
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.
66 of 66 films
as Martin Lee
Directed by David Fincher
as Martin Lee
Directed by David Fincher
as Henry Griffin
Directed by Unknown
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 84 titles · 84 total credits · active 1988–2026
Night Patrol
2026 · Sarge
Let's Love
2026 · Jerry
November 1963
2026 · Chuckie Nicoletti
The Gettysburg Address
2025 · Andrew Curtin (voice)
Swiped
2025 · Slate
Guns & Moses
2025 · Alan Rosner
Long Shadows
2025 · Dallas Garrett
The Hunting Wives
2025 · TV · Jed Banks
Lights Out
2024 · Sage Parker
Depravity
2024 · Mr. Evers
Blackwater Lane
2024 · Matthew
Scream VI
2023 · Detective Bailey
Ruthless
2023 · Harry Sumner
The Dirty South
2023 · Jeb Roy
Breakwater
2023 · Ray Childress
Shooting Stars
2023 · Keith Dambrot
You're Killing Me
2023 · Congressman Schroder
The Warrant: Breaker's Law
2023 · Dead-Eye / Yule Bronson
Anyone but You
2023 · Leo
Secret Invasion
2023 · TV · President Ritson
Ghosts of Beirut
2023 · TV · Robert Ames
Along for the Ride
2022 · Robert West
Agent Game
2022 · Harris
Section 8
2022 · Sam Ramsey
The defining work
#1
Martin Lee
Zodiac (2007)
Performance score8.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Martin Lee gives Dermot Mulroney a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Martin Lee
Zodiac (2007)
Performance score7.5
Zodiac asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Martin Lee is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Wolf
Living in Oblivion (1995)
Performance score7.3
Living in Oblivion asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Wolf is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Harry Sumner
Ruthless (2023)
Performance score7.2
Ruthless asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Harry Sumner 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 Martin Lee
Start here. Zodiac is the clearest statement of what Dermot Mulroney does — accessible, 157 minutes, and rated 8.8 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Dermot 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.
Living in Oblivion (1995)
A deliberate change of key after Zodiac — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Griffin & Phoenix (2006)
Keeps the comedy register of Living in Oblivion but asks for a colder reading of it.
Zodiac (2007)
A deliberate change of key after Griffin & Phoenix — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Ruthless (2023)
Keeps the thriller register of Zodiac but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
David Fincher
Director
2 films together
Notably Zodiac
Christopher Cain
Director
1 film together
Notably Young Guns
Peter Bogdanovich
Director
1 film together
Notably The Thing Called Love
John Badham
Director
1 film together
Notably Point of No Return
William Dear
Director
1 film together
Notably Angels in the Outfield
Jonathan Kaplan
Director
1 film together
Notably Bad Girls
Tom DiCillo
Director
1 film together
Notably Living in Oblivion
Jon Amiel
Director
1 film together
Notably Copycat
Jocelyn Moorhouse
Director
1 film together
Notably How to Make an American Quilt
P.J. Hogan
Director
1 film together
Notably My Best Friend's Wedding
Alexander Payne
Director
1 film together
Notably About Schmidt
Gary David Goldberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Must Love Dogs
Clare Kilner
Director
1 film together
Notably The Wedding Date
Thomas Bezucha
Director
1 film together
Notably The Family Stone
Garry Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably Georgia Rule
Marc Abraham
Director
1 film together
Notably Flash of Genius
Joel Coen
Director
1 film together
Notably Burn After Reading
John Singleton
Director
1 film together
Notably Abduction
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together
Notably J. Edgar
Ken Kwapis
Director
1 film together
Notably Big Miracle
Joe Carnahan
Director
1 film together
Notably The Grey
Brian Dannelly
Director
1 film together
Notably Struck by Lightning
Park Chan-wook
Director
1 film together
Notably Stoker
John Wells
Director
1 film together
Notably August: Osage County
Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum
Director
1 film together
Notably Careful What You Wish For
James Vanderbilt
Director
1 film together
Notably Truth
Leigh Whannell
Director
1 film together
Notably Insidious: Chapter 3
Jarrad Paul
Director
1 film together
Notably The D Train
Ed Gass-Donnelly
Director
1 film together
Notably Lavender
Dan Mazer
Director
1 film together
Notably Dirty Grandpa
Baran bo Odar
Director
1 film together
Notably Sleepless
Scott Speer
Director
1 film together
Notably I Still See You
Carlson Young
Director
1 film together
Notably The Blazing World
Eli Horowitz
Director
1 film together
Notably Gone in the Night
Will Gluck
Director
1 film together
Notably Anyone but You
Chris Robinson
Director
1 film together
Notably Shooting Stars
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin
Director
1 film together
Notably Scream VI
Jeff Celentano
Director
1 film together
Notably Blackwater Lane
William Shockley
Director
1 film together
Notably Long Shadows
Rachel Lee Goldenberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Swiped
Roland Joffé
Director
1 film together
Notably November 1963
Zach Grenier
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Richmond Arquette
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Bob Stephenson
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Jake Gyllenhaal
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Mark Ruffalo
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Anthony Edwards
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Robert Downey Jr.
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Chloë Sevigny
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Elias Koteas
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
John Carroll Lynch
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Brian Cox
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Charles Fleischer
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
David Fincher
Director
2 films together · 8.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
ZodiacChris Robinson
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Shooting StarsMatt Bettinelli-Olpin
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scream VIWill Gluck
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Anyone but YouTom DiCillo
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Living in OblivionJohn Wells
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
August: Osage CountyJoel Coen
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Burn After ReadingClare Kilner
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 Wedding DateAlexander Payne
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
About SchmidtJoe Carnahan
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The GreyChristopher Cain
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Young GunsRachel Lee Goldenberg
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SwipedPark Chan-wook
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
StokerKen Kwapis
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Big MiracleP.J. Hogan
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
My Best Friend's WeddingScott Speer
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
I Still See YouLeigh Whannell
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Insidious: Chapter 3James Vanderbilt
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TruthMarc Abraham
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Flash of GeniusJon Amiel
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CopycatClint Eastwood
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
J. EdgarThomas Bezucha
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 Family StoneJocelyn Moorhouse
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
How to Make an American QuiltElizabeth Allen Rosenbaum
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Careful What You Wish ForBrian Dannelly
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Struck by LightningJohn Badham
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Point of No ReturnJeff Celentano
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Blackwater LaneGarry Marshall
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Georgia RuleWilliam Dear
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Angels in the OutfieldPeter Bogdanovich
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Thing Called LoveBaran bo Odar
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SleeplessDan Mazer
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dirty GrandpaGary David Goldberg
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Must Love DogsWilliam Shockley
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Long ShadowsJohn Singleton
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AbductionEli Horowitz
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gone in the NightEd Gass-Donnelly
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LavenderJonathan Kaplan
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bad GirlsCarlson Young
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 Blazing WorldJarrad Paul
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The D TrainRoland Joffé
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
November 1963Six degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
0 wins · 2 nominations
No wins yet · 1 nomination
as Actor
No wins yet · 1 nomination
as Actor
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Zodiac
as Martin Lee
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 Mountain Between Us
as Mark Robertson
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Zodiac
as Martin Lee
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Swiped
as Slate
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Zodiac
as Martin Lee
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. Dermot Mulroney 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 | 7.9 | 8.7 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #505 of 681 | #7 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 4 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 8.8 | 9.4 |
| Genres | Crime, Mystery, Drama | Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller |
| Directors | David Fincher | Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, Frank Darabont |
| Performance DNA | Quiet performance, Intensity, Drama | Screen presence, Drama, Rewatchability |
| Career timeline | 2007–2007 | 1994–2008 |
| Most iconic role | Martin Lee — Zodiac | Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding — The Shawshank Redemption |
| Most rewatchable film | Zodiac | The Shawshank Redemption |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 3 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
David Fincher
Shared collections
Best Detective Movies, Best Psychological Thrillers, Top 100 Crime Movies, Mystery Movies, Crime Movies, Drama Movies
Collaborators in common
David Fincher
Morgan Freeman 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
38 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
31 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
Zodiac
as Martin Lee
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Zodiac
as Martin Lee
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Along for the Ride
as Robert West
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
I Still See You
as August
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Zodiac
as Martin Lee
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Courier
as Special Agent Roberts
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Georgia Rule
as Simon Ward
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Hard Luck Love Song
as Rollo
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 6 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
genre
Best Detective Movies
Features Zodiac at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Best Psychological Thrillers
Features Zodiac
Read the collectiongenre
Top 100 Crime Movies
Features Zodiac
Read the collectiongenre
Mystery Movies
Features Zodiac
Read the collectiongenre
Crime Movies
Features Zodiac
Read the collectiongenre
Drama Movies
Features Zodiac
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
Morgan Freeman
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Robert Downey Jr.
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Edward Norton
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Brad Pitt
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Have your say
Community
Which Dermot Mulroney performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
Join the conversation
Reference
Continue exploring
Trending performers
Directors they work with
