Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2398
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Sacha Baron Cohen 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.
Sacha Baron Cohen appears in 18 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Sacha. The Trial of the Chicago 7 is the clearest case: a film rated 7.7 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, comedy, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Peter Farrelly, Thea Sharrock, Sacha Baron Cohen and others, Sacha Baron Cohen 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 Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) as Abbie Hoffman · Les Misérables (2012) as Monsieur Thénardier · Hugo (2011) as Station Inspector
Career snapshot
Ranked #2398 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
18
2002–2026
Career length
24 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.7
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Average Nutevio score
5.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.7
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Most frequent director
Eric Darnell
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Eric Darnell
Most common genre
Comedy
12 titles
Average runtime
1h 37m
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
2000s
6.7 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.7
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.6
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. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
Most productive era
2010s
7 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 | 7.21 film | 7.32 films | 7.71 film |
| Action | — | 6.01 film | 5.81 film |
| Comedy | 6.64 films | 6.34 films | 4.64 films |
| Horror | 7.21 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2002Ali G Indahouse
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Alistair Leslie 'Ali G' Graham / Borat Sagdiyev.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2020The Trial of the Chicago 7
7.7 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
2026England 2006: The Golden Generation
The current state of the argument, as Self (archive footage).
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.
18 of 18 films
as Monsieur Thénardier
Directed by Tom Hooper
as Station Inspector
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as King Julien (voice)
Directed by Eric Darnell
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
Abbie Hoffman
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
Performance score8.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Abbie Hoffman gives Sacha Baron Cohen a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Monsieur Thénardier
Les Misérables (2012)
Performance score7.4
Les Misérables asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Monsieur Thénardier is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Station Inspector
Hugo (2011)
Performance score7.3
Hugo asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Station Inspector is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Pirelli
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Performance score7.3
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Pirelli 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 Abbie Hoffman
Start here. The Trial of the Chicago 7 is the clearest statement of what Sacha Baron Cohen does — accessible, 130 minutes, and rated 7.7 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Sacha 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.
Madagascar (2005)
A deliberate change of key after The Trial of the Chicago 7 — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
A deliberate change of key after Madagascar — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Hugo (2011)
Keeps the drama register of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street but asks for a colder reading of it.
Les Misérables (2012)
Keeps the drama register of Hugo but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Eric Darnell
Director
3 films together
Notably Madagascar
Adam McKay
Director
2 films together
Notably Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Mark Mylod
Director
1 film together
Notably Ali G Indahouse
Tim Burton
Director
1 film together
Notably Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Martin Scorsese
Director
1 film together
Notably Hugo
Larry Charles
Director
1 film together
Notably The Dictator
Tom Hooper
Director
1 film together
Notably Les Misérables
Louis Leterrier
Director
1 film together
Notably Grimsby
James Bobin
Director
1 film together
Notably Alice Through the Looking Glass
Aaron Sorkin
Director
1 film together
Notably The Trial of the Chicago 7
Jason Woliner
Director
1 film together
Notably Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Richard Fitzpatrick
Director
1 film together
Notably England 2006: The Golden Generation
Sacha Baron Cohen
Director
1 film together
Notably Ali G: Who Iz I?
Thea Sharrock
Director
1 film together
Notably Ladies First
Peter Farrelly
Director
1 film together
Notably Balls Up
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Eric Darnell
Director
3 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
MadagascarAdam McKay
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky BobbyAaron Sorkin
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Trial of the Chicago 7Tom Hooper
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Les MisérablesMartin Scorsese
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HugoTim Burton
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet StreetJames Bobin
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Alice Through the Looking GlassJason Woliner
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Larry Charles
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 DictatorMark Mylod
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ali G IndahouseThea Sharrock
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ladies FirstLouis Leterrier
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GrimsbyPeter Farrelly
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Balls UpSacha Baron Cohen
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ali G: Who Iz I?Richard Fitzpatrick
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
England 2006: The Golden GenerationSix 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 Trial of the Chicago 7
as Abbie Hoffman
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 Trial of the Chicago 7
as Abbie Hoffman
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 Trial of the Chicago 7
as Abbie Hoffman
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
as BBC News Anchor
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Trial of the Chicago 7
as Abbie Hoffman
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. Sacha Baron Cohen 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.
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
The Trial of the Chicago 7
as Abbie Hoffman
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
as Pirelli
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Trial of the Chicago 7
as Abbie Hoffman
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Alice Through the Looking Glass
as Time
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Hugo
as Station Inspector
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Balls Up
as Pavio Curto
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Les Misérables
as Monsieur Thénardier
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
as Julien (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Leonardo DiCaprio
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Robert De Niro
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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