Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1681
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Zach Braff 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.
Zach Braff appears in 16 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Zach. The Disaster Artist is the clearest case: a film rated 7.1 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 romance, drama, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Hayley Kiyoko, James A. Woods, David Gelb and others, Zach Braff 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 Disaster Artist (2017) as Zach Braff (uncredited) · Garden State (2004) as Andrew Largeman · Girls Like Girls (2026) as Curtis
Career snapshot
Ranked #1681 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
16
2004–2026
Career length
22 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.1
The Disaster Artist
Average Nutevio score
5.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.1
The Disaster Artist
Most frequent director
James Franco
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With James Franco
Most common genre
Comedy
10 titles
Average runtime
1h 34m
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
2010s
6.3 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. The Disaster Artist, In Dubious Battle, Wish I Was Here — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.3
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.3
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. The Ex, Chicken Little, Garden State.
Most productive era
2020s
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 | 7.11 film | 6.53 films | 4.53 films |
| Thriller | — | — | 0.01 film |
| Comedy | 6.13 films | 6.82 films | 6.15 films |
| Crime | — | — | 2.92 films |
| Romance | 6.22 films | — | 6.63 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2004Garden State
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Andrew Largeman. 7.1 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
2026Girls Like Girls
The current state of the argument, as Curtis.
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.
16 of 16 films
as Andrew Largeman
Directed by Zach Braff
as Aidan Bloom
Directed by Zach Braff
as Curtis
Directed by Hayley Kiyoko
as Gordon Kinski
Directed by James A. Woods
as Zach Braff (uncredited)
Directed by James Franco
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
Andrew Largeman
Garden State (2004)
Performance score7.7
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Andrew Largeman gives Zach Braff a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Aidan Bloom
Wish I Was Here (2014)
Performance score7.2
Wish I Was Here asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Aidan Bloom is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Curtis
Girls Like Girls (2026)
Performance score7.0
Girls Like Girls asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Curtis is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Gordon Kinski
French Girl (2024)
Performance score7.0
French Girl asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Gordon Kinski 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 Andrew Largeman
Start here. Garden State is the clearest statement of what Zach Braff does — accessible, 102 minutes, and rated 7.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Zach 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.
Wish I Was Here (2014)
Same director as Garden State, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
The Disaster Artist (2017)
Keeps the comedy register of Wish I Was Here but asks for a colder reading of it.
French Girl (2024)
Keeps the comedy register of The Disaster Artist but asks for a colder reading of it.
Girls Like Girls (2026)
Keeps the romance register of French Girl but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Zach Braff
Director
2 films together
Notably Garden State
James Franco
Director
2 films together
Notably The Disaster Artist
Mark Dindal
Director
1 film together
Notably Chicken Little
Jesse Peretz
Director
1 film together
Notably The Ex
Sam Raimi
Director
1 film together
Notably Oz the Great and Powerful
Clark Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably Percy
George Gallo
Director
1 film together
Notably The Comeback Trail
Conner O'Malley
Director
1 film together
Notably Fuck Coin
Gail Lerner
Director
1 film together
Notably Cheaper by the Dozen
David Gelb
Director
1 film together
Notably Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return
James A. Woods
Director
1 film together
Notably French Girl
Hayley Kiyoko
Director
1 film together
Notably Girls Like Girls
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Zach Braff
Director
2 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Garden StateJames Franco
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
The Disaster ArtistHayley Kiyoko
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Girls Like GirlsDavid Gelb
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's ReturnClark Johnson
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PercyJames A. Woods
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
French GirlGail Lerner
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cheaper by the DozenSam Raimi
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Oz the Great and PowerfulMark Dindal
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Chicken LittleGeorge Gallo
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Comeback TrailJesse Peretz
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The ExConner O'Malley
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fuck CoinSix 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 Disaster Artist
as Zach Braff (uncredited)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Girls Like Girls
as Curtis
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Garden State
as Andrew Largeman
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Disaster Artist
as Zach Braff (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Garden State
as Andrew Largeman
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. Zach Braff 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
22 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
10 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 Disaster Artist
as Zach Braff (uncredited)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Garden State
as Andrew Largeman
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Girls Like Girls
as Curtis
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Oz the Great and Powerful
as Frank / Finley
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Garden State
as Andrew Largeman
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Oz the Great and Powerful
as Frank / Finley
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Garden State
as Andrew Largeman
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
French Girl
as Gordon Kinski
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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