Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1970
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Bokeem Woodbine represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 31 years in, and Bokeem is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Bokeem Woodbine appears in 23 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Bokeem. Spider-Man: Homecoming is the clearest case: a film rated 7.6 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 crime, drama, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Lance Oppenheim, Bill Burr, Elegance Bratton and others, Bokeem Woodbine 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.
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) as Herman Schultz / Shocker #2 · Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) as Sheriff Domingo · The Rock (1996) as Sergeant Crisp
Career snapshot
Ranked #1970 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
23
1995–2026
Career length
31 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.6
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.3
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Most frequent director
Lance Oppenheim
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Lance Oppenheim
Most common genre
Comedy
11 titles
Average runtime
1h 49m
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
6.5
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
1990s
6.5 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Life, Almost Heroes, The Big Hit — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.5
Across 7 catalogue films 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. Life, Almost Heroes, The Big Hit.
Most productive era
2010s
8 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 | 6.63 films | — | 6.42 films | 4.03 films |
| Action | 6.63 films | 6.52 films | 6.64 films | 6.51 film |
| Thriller | 6.63 films | 5.91 film | 5.93 films | 3.32 films |
| Comedy | 6.35 films | 6.52 films | 5.41 film | 6.73 films |
| Crime | 6.55 films | 5.91 film | 7.11 film | 0.01 film |
| Romance | — | — | 7.11 film | — |
| Horror | — | — | 6.12 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1995Dead Presidents
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Cleon.
Highest rated performance
7.6 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2019Queen & Slim
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2026Primetime
The current state of the argument.
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.
23 of 23 films
as Uncle Earl
Directed by Melina Matsoukas
as Herman Schultz / Shocker #2
Directed by Jon Watts
as Sheriff Domingo
Directed by Jason Reitman
as Black Hand Jack
Directed by Unknown
as Sergeant Crisp
Directed by Michael Bay
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
Uncle Earl
Queen & Slim (2019)
Performance score7.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Uncle Earl gives Bokeem Woodbine a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Herman Schultz / Shocker #2
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Performance score7.4
Spider-Man: Homecoming asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Herman Schultz / Shocker #2 is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Sheriff Domingo
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
Performance score7.2
Ghostbusters: Afterlife asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sheriff Domingo is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Black Hand Jack
Black Dynamite (2009)
Performance score7.2
Black Dynamite asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Black Hand Jack 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 Uncle Earl
Start here. Queen & Slim is the clearest statement of what Bokeem Woodbine does — accessible, 132 minutes, and rated 7.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Bokeem 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 Rock (1996)
A deliberate change of key after Queen & Slim — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Black Dynamite (2009)
Keeps the action register of The Rock but asks for a colder reading of it.
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Keeps the action register of Black Dynamite but asks for a colder reading of it.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
Keeps the adventure register of Spider-Man: Homecoming but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Albert Hughes
Director
1 film together
Notably Dead Presidents
Michael Bay
Director
1 film together
Notably The Rock
Vondie Curtis-Hall
Director
1 film together
Notably Gridlock'd
Christopher Guest
Director
1 film together
Notably Almost Heroes
Ted Demme
Director
1 film together
Notably Life
Len Wiseman
Director
1 film together
Notably Total Recall
David Twohy
Director
1 film together
Notably Riddick
Don Michael Paul
Director
1 film together
Notably Jarhead 2: Field of Fire
Jon Watts
Director
1 film together
Notably Spider-Man: Homecoming
Brian Taylor
Director
1 film together
Notably Mom and Dad
Melina Matsoukas
Director
1 film together
Notably Queen & Slim
Peter Berg
Director
1 film together
Notably Spenser Confidential
Jason Reitman
Director
1 film together
Notably Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Elegance Bratton
Director
1 film together
Notably The Inspection
Bill Burr
Director
1 film together
Notably Old Dads
Lance Oppenheim
Director
1 film together
Notably Primetime
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Jon Watts
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Spider-Man: HomecomingJason Reitman
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ghostbusters: AfterlifeMichael Bay
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The RockMelina Matsoukas
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Queen & SlimTed Demme
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LifeAlbert Hughes
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dead PresidentsVondie Curtis-Hall
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gridlock'dPeter Berg
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Spenser ConfidentialDavid Twohy
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RiddickBill Burr
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Old DadsElegance Bratton
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 InspectionDon Michael Paul
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jarhead 2: Field of FireLen Wiseman
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Total RecallChristopher Guest
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Almost HeroesBrian Taylor
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mom and DadLance Oppenheim
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PrimetimeSix 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
Spider-Man: Homecoming
as Herman Schultz / Shocker #2
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Queen & Slim
as Uncle Earl
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Spider-Man: Homecoming
as Herman Schultz / Shocker #2
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Mom and Dad
as Parent on TV (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Queen & Slim
as Uncle Earl
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. Bokeem Woodbine 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
31 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
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
as Sheriff Domingo
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Rock
as Sergeant Crisp
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Queen & Slim
as Uncle Earl
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Freeway
as Chopper
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Spider-Man: Homecoming
as Herman Schultz / Shocker #2
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Spider-Man: Homecoming
as Herman Schultz / Shocker #2
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Gridlock'd
as Mud (uncredited)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Almost Heroes
as Jonah
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
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Elliot Page
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: comedy and drama
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: comedy and drama
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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