Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2326
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Billy Magnussen 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.
Billy Magnussen appears in 24 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Billy. The Big Short is the clearest case: a film rated 7.4 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, science fiction, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Aaron Sorkin, Dean Fleischer Camp, Kogonada and others, Billy Magnussen 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 Big Short (2015) as Mortgage Broker · No Time to Die (2021) as Logan Ash · Lilo & Stitch (2025) as Pleakley
Career snapshot
Ranked #2326 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
24
2010–2026
Career length
16 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.4
The Big Short
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.4
The Big Short
Most frequent director
Aaron Sorkin
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Aaron Sorkin
Most common genre
Drama
13 titles
Average runtime
1h 48m
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
6.2
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. Velvet Buzzsaw, Aladdin, Game Night — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.3
Across 12 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
2010s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Velvet Buzzsaw, Aladdin, Game Night.
Most productive era
2010s
12 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 | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.47 films | 5.46 films |
| Action | 5.71 film | 6.94 films |
| Thriller | 6.25 films | 6.74 films |
| Comedy | 6.37 films | 6.45 films |
| Crime | 6.32 films | 6.33 films |
| Romance | 6.32 films | 6.21 film |
| Horror | 5.41 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2010Twelve
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Claude Kenton.
Highest rated performance
2015The Big Short
7.4 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2024Road House
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
The current state of the argument, as Teddy.
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.
24 of 24 films
as Pleakley
Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp
as Ben Brandt
Directed by Doug Liman
as Schneider
Directed by Barry Levinson
as Logan Ash
Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga
as Mortgage Broker
Directed by Adam McKay
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
Pleakley
Lilo & Stitch (2025)
Performance score7.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Pleakley gives Billy Magnussen a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Ben Brandt
Road House (2024)
Performance score7.3
Road House asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ben Brandt is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Schneider
The Survivor (2022)
Performance score7.2
The Survivor asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Schneider is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Logan Ash
No Time to Die (2021)
Performance score7.2
No Time to Die asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Logan Ash 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 Pleakley
Start here. Lilo & Stitch is the clearest statement of what Billy Magnussen does — accessible, 108 minutes, and rated 7.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Billy 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.
The Big Short (2015)
Keeps the comedy register of Lilo & Stitch but asks for a colder reading of it.
No Time to Die (2021)
A deliberate change of key after The Big Short — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Survivor (2022)
Keeps the action register of No Time to Die but asks for a colder reading of it.
Road House (2024)
Keeps the action register of The Survivor but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Joel Schumacher
Director
1 film together
Notably Twelve
Whit Stillman
Director
1 film together
Notably Damsels in Distress
Ramaa Mosley
Director
1 film together
Notably The Brass Teapot
Zal Batmanglij
Director
1 film together
Notably The East
Rob Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably Into the Woods
Adam McKay
Director
1 film together
Notably The Big Short
Steven Spielberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Bridge of Spies
Lorene Scafaria
Director
1 film together
Notably The Meddler
Matt Spicer
Director
1 film together
Notably Ingrid Goes West
John Francis Daley
Director
1 film together
Notably Game Night
Guy Ritchie
Director
1 film together
Notably Aladdin
Cary Joji Fukunaga
Director
1 film together
Notably No Time to Die
Alan Taylor
Director
1 film together
Notably The Many Saints of Newark
Barry Levinson
Director
1 film together
Notably The Survivor
Robert Rodriguez
Director
1 film together
Notably Spy Kids: Armageddon
F. Gary Gray
Director
1 film together
Notably Lift
Doug Liman
Director
1 film together
Notably Road House
Kogonada
Director
1 film together
Notably A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
Dean Fleischer Camp
Director
1 film together
Notably Lilo & Stitch
Aaron Sorkin
Director
1 film together
Notably The Social Reckoning
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Adam McKay
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Big ShortCary Joji Fukunaga
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
No Time to DieDean Fleischer Camp
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lilo & StitchSteven Spielberg
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bridge of SpiesGuy Ritchie
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AladdinDoug Liman
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Road HouseBarry Levinson
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 SurvivorJohn Francis Daley
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Game NightZal Batmanglij
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The EastF. Gary Gray
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LiftMatt Spicer
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ingrid Goes WestAlan Taylor
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Many Saints of NewarkKogonada
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Big Bold Beautiful JourneyRamaa Mosley
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Brass TeapotRobert Rodriguez
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Spy Kids: ArmageddonLorene Scafaria
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The MeddlerRob Marshall
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Into the WoodsJoel Schumacher
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TwelveWhit Stillman
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Damsels in DistressAaron Sorkin
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Social ReckoningSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
0 wins · 1 nomination
No wins yet · 1 nomination
as Actor
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
The Big Short
as Mortgage Broker
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Aladdin
as Prince Anders
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 Big Short
as Mortgage Broker
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Big Short
as Mortgage Broker
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Lilo & Stitch
as Pleakley
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. Billy Magnussen 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.
Drama Legend
Awarded
13 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
Game Night
as Ryan
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
No Time to Die
as Logan Ash
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
as The Man
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Game Night
as Ryan
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
No Time to Die
as Logan Ash
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
No Time to Die
as Logan Ash
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Violent Ends
as Lucas Frost
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
as The Man
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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