Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#4154
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Bill Maher represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 25 years in, and Bill is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Bill Maher appears in 14 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Bill. Sicko 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 drama, thriller, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Nisha Ganatra, Evan Goldberg, Shane Black and others, Bill Maher 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.
Sicko (2007) as Self · John Q (2002) as Bill Maher · Iron Man 3 (2013) as Bill Maher
Career snapshot
Ranked #4154 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
14
1998–2023
Career length
25 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.1
Sicko
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.4
Sicko
Most frequent director
Nisha Ganatra
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Nisha Ganatra
Most common genre
Comedy
11 titles
Average runtime
1h 47m
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
6.4
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
2020s
6.4 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. Reality — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
6.4
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.5
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. EDtv, Primary Colors.
Most productive era
2010s
6 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 | 6.31 film | 6.73 films | 6.41 film | 6.41 film |
| Action | — | — | 6.62 films | — |
| Thriller | — | 7.11 film | — | 6.41 film |
| Comedy | 6.22 films | 6.24 films | 6.05 films | — |
| Crime | — | 7.11 film | — | — |
| Romance | — | 5.11 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1998Primary Colors
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Himself.
Highest rated performance
2002John Q
7.1 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2008Religulous
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2023Reality
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.
14 of 14 films
as Self - Host/Narrator
Directed by Larry Charles
as Self
Directed by Michael Moore
as Bill Maher
Directed by Nick Cassavetes
as Bill Maher
Directed by Shane Black
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
Self - Host/Narrator
Religulous (2008)
Performance score7.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Self - Host/Narrator gives Bill Maher a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Self
Sicko (2007)
Performance score7.0
Sicko asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Bill Maher
John Q (2002)
Performance score7.0
John Q asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bill Maher is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Bill Maher
Iron Man 3 (2013)
Performance score6.8
Iron Man 3 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bill Maher 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 - Host/Narrator
Start here. Religulous is the clearest statement of what Bill Maher does — accessible, 101 minutes, and rated 6.8 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Bill 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.
John Q (2002)
A deliberate change of key after Religulous — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Sicko (2007)
Keeps the drama register of John Q but asks for a colder reading of it.
Iron Man 3 (2013)
A deliberate change of key after Sicko — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Reality (2023)
A deliberate change of key after Iron Man 3 — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Mike Nichols
Director
1 film together
Notably Primary Colors
Ron Howard
Director
1 film together
Notably EDtv
Nick Cassavetes
Director
1 film together
Notably John Q
Michael Moore
Director
1 film together
Notably Sicko
Larry Charles
Director
1 film together
Notably Religulous
Jay Roach
Director
1 film together
Notably The Campaign
Shane Black
Director
1 film together
Notably Iron Man 3
Evan Goldberg
Director
1 film together
Notably The Interview
Nisha Ganatra
Director
1 film together
Notably Late Night
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Michael Moore
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SickoNick Cassavetes
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
John QShane Black
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Iron Man 3Larry Charles
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ReligulousNisha Ganatra
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Late NightMike Nichols
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Primary ColorsEvan Goldberg
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 InterviewRon Howard
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EDtvJay Roach
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 CampaignSix 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
Sicko
as Self
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Reality
as Self (archive footage)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
John Q
as Bill Maher
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
John Q
as Bill Maher
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Religulous
as Self - Host/Narrator
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. Bill Maher 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
25 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
11 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
John Q
as Bill Maher
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
John Q
as Bill Maher
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Tomcats
as Carlos (uncredited)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
John Q
as Bill Maher
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Iron Man 3
as Bill Maher
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Iron Man 3
as Bill Maher
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
John Q
as Bill Maher
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Delivery Man
as Self
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and thriller
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Edward Norton
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Reference
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