Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#167
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Seth MacFarlane 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.
Seth MacFarlane appears in 15 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Seth. Music by John Williams 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, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for music, documentary, science fiction. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with David Silverman, Ash Brannon, Garth Jennings and others, Seth MacFarlane 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.
Music by John Williams (2024) as Self - Filmmaker / Vocalist · The Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III (2010) as Emperor Palpatine (voice) · Family Guy Presents: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side (2009) as Peter Griffin as Han Solo / Brian Griffin as Chewbacca / Stewie Griffin as Darth Vader / Glenn Quagmire as C-3PO / Dr. Elmer Hartman as General Rieekan / Carter Pewterschmidt as Emperor Palpatine / Aaron Sorkin / Cookie Monster / Man / George Takei / Dagobah Man / Commander #2 / Driver / Ringo Starr / Empire Member #2 / Pilot #1 (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #167 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
15
2005–2024
Career length
19 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.1
Music by John Williams
Average Nutevio score
6.1
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.1
Music by John Williams
Most frequent director
Seth MacFarlane
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Seth MacFarlane
Most common genre
Comedy
13 titles
Average runtime
1h 24m
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
7.0 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Family Guy Presents: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.0
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
7.0
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. Family Guy Presents: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story.
Most productive era
2010s
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 | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 6.71 film | — |
| Action | 7.02 films | 7.03 films | — |
| Comedy | 7.12 films | 6.49 films | 2.62 films |
| Crime | — | 6.71 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2005Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Stewie Griffin / Various Characters (voice).
Career peak
2009Family Guy Presents: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Highest rated performance
8.1 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Most recent film
The current state of the argument, as Stewie Griffin (voice).
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.
15 of 15 films
as Self - Filmmaker / Vocalist
Directed by Unknown
as Peter Griffin as Han Solo / Brian Griffin as Chewbacca / Stewie Griffin as Darth Vader / Glenn Quagmire as C-3PO / Dr. Elmer Hartman as General Rieekan / Carter Pewterschmidt as Emperor Palpatine / Aaron Sorkin / Cookie Monster / Man / George Takei / Dagobah Man / Commander #2 / Driver / Ringo Starr / Empire Member #2 / Pilot #1 (voice)
Directed by Dominic Polcino
as Emperor Palpatine (voice)
Directed by Unknown
as Mike (voice)
Directed by Garth Jennings
as Stewie Griffin / Various Characters (voice)
Directed by Pete Michels
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
Self - Filmmaker / Vocalist
Music by John Williams (2024)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Self - Filmmaker / Vocalist gives Seth MacFarlane a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Peter Griffin as Han Solo / Brian Griffin as Chewbacca / Stewie Griffin as Darth Vader / Glenn Quagmire as C-3PO / Dr. Elmer Hartman as General Rieekan / Carter Pewterschmidt as Emperor Palpatine / Aaron Sorkin / Cookie Monster / Man / George Takei / Dagobah Man / Commander #2 / Driver / Ringo Starr / Empire Member #2 / Pilot #1 (voice)
Family Guy Presents: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side (2009)
Performance score7.8
Family Guy Presents: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Peter Griffin as Han Solo / Brian Griffin as Chewbacca / Stewie Griffin as Darth Vader / Glenn Quagmire as C-3PO / Dr. Elmer Hartman as General Rieekan / Carter Pewterschmidt as Emperor Palpatine / Aaron Sorkin / Cookie Monster / Man / George Takei / Dagobah Man / Commander #2 / Driver / Ringo Starr / Empire Member #2 / Pilot #1 (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Emperor Palpatine (voice)
The Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III (2010)
Performance score7.6
The Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Emperor Palpatine (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Mike (voice)
Sing (2016)
Performance score7.5
Sing asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mike (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 Self - Filmmaker / Vocalist
Start here. Music by John Williams is the clearest statement of what Seth MacFarlane does — accessible, 106 minutes, and rated 8.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Seth 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.
Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005)
A deliberate change of key after Music by John Williams — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Family Guy Presents: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side (2009)
Keeps the comedy register of Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III (2010)
Keeps the action register of Family Guy Presents: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side but asks for a colder reading of it.
Sing (2016)
Keeps the comedy register of The Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Seth MacFarlane
Director
3 films together
Notably Ted
Pete Michels
Director
1 film together
Notably Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story
Guillermo del Toro
Director
1 film together
Notably Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Dominic Polcino
Director
1 film together
Notably Family Guy Presents: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side
Michael Lembeck
Director
1 film together
Notably Tooth Fairy
Peter Shin
Director
1 film together
Notably Family Guy Presents: It's a Trap!
Brett Ratner
Director
1 film together
Notably Movie 43
Garth Jennings
Director
1 film together
Notably Sing
Ash Brannon
Director
1 film together
Notably Stoner Cats
David Silverman
Director
1 film together
Notably May the 12th Be with You
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Seth MacFarlane
Director
3 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
TedDominic Polcino
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Family Guy Presents: Something, Something, Something, Dark SideGarth Jennings
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SingPete Michels
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Stewie Griffin: The Untold StoryPeter Shin
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Family Guy Presents: It's a Trap!Guillermo del Toro
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hellboy II: The Golden ArmyMichael Lembeck
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Tooth FairyDavid Silverman
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
May the 12th Be with YouBrett Ratner
Director
1 film together · 4.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Movie 43Ash Brannon
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Stoner CatsSix 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
Music by John Williams
as Self - Filmmaker / Vocalist
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Sing
as Mike (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
Music by John Williams
as Self - Filmmaker / Vocalist
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Movie 43
as Seth MacFarlane (segment “The Pitch”)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Music by John Williams
as Self - Filmmaker / Vocalist
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. Seth MacFarlane 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
13 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
Music by John Williams
as Self - Filmmaker / Vocalist
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III
as Emperor Palpatine (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Sing
as Mike (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
as Johann Krauss (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III
as Emperor Palpatine (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III
as Emperor Palpatine (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Sing
as Mike (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
A Million Ways to Die in the West
as Albert
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
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Reference
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