Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3366
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Cedric Yarbrough 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.
Cedric Yarbrough appears in 16 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Cedric. Black Dynamite 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, action. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Clint Eastwood, Mike Mitchell, Jerry Seinfeld and others, Cedric Yarbrough 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.
Black Dynamite (2009) as Chocolate Giddy-Up · Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024) as Bull Officer #1 / Ram Foreman / Questioned Boar (voice) · Juror #2 (2024) as Marcus
Career snapshot
Ranked #3366 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
Black Dynamite
Average Nutevio score
5.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.1
Black Dynamite
Most frequent director
Robert Ben Garant
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Robert Ben Garant
Most common genre
Comedy
14 titles
Average runtime
1h 32m
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
6.2 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Black Dynamite, Get Smart, Drillbit Taylor — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.2
Across 7 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.2
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. Black Dynamite, Get Smart, Drillbit Taylor.
Most productive era
2000s
7 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 | 5.81 film | — | 3.52 films |
| Action | 6.43 films | — | 7.01 film |
| Thriller | 6.21 film | — | 6.91 film |
| Comedy | 6.27 films | 5.72 films | 5.95 films |
| Crime | 5.81 film | 5.61 film | 5.82 films |
| Romance | 6.23 films | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2004Meet the Fockers
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Prison Guard.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2009Black Dynamite
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
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.
16 of 16 films
as Chocolate Giddy-Up
Directed by Unknown
as Bull Officer #1 / Ram Foreman / Questioned Boar (voice)
Directed by Mike Mitchell
as Marcus
Directed by Clint Eastwood
as Toucan Sam
Directed by Jerry Seinfeld
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
Chocolate Giddy-Up
Black Dynamite (2009)
Performance score7.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Chocolate Giddy-Up gives Cedric Yarbrough a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Bull Officer #1 / Ram Foreman / Questioned Boar (voice)
Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)
Performance score6.9
Kung Fu Panda 4 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bull Officer #1 / Ram Foreman / Questioned Boar (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Marcus
Juror #2 (2024)
Performance score6.8
Juror #2 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Marcus is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
General Admission
General Admission (2026)
Performance score6.5
General Admission asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. The role 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 Chocolate Giddy-Up
Start here. Black Dynamite is the clearest statement of what Cedric Yarbrough does — accessible, 85 minutes, and rated 7.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Cedric 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.
Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)
Keeps the action register of Black Dynamite but asks for a colder reading of it.
Juror #2 (2024)
A deliberate change of key after Kung Fu Panda 4 — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Unfrosted (2024)
A deliberate change of key after Juror #2 — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
General Admission (2026)
A deliberate change of key after Unfrosted — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Robert Ben Garant
Director
2 films together
Notably Reno 911!: The Hunt for QAnon
Jay Roach
Director
1 film together
Notably Meet the Fockers
Judd Apatow
Director
1 film together
Notably The 40 Year Old Virgin
Seth Gordon
Director
1 film together
Notably Four Christmases
Steven Brill
Director
1 film together
Notably Drillbit Taylor
Peter Segal
Director
1 film together
Notably Get Smart
Ben Falcone
Director
1 film together
Notably The Boss
Christian Hoffman
Director
1 film together
Notably Reno 911!: It's a Wonderful Heist
Jerry Seinfeld
Director
1 film together
Notably Unfrosted
Mike Mitchell
Director
1 film together
Notably Kung Fu Panda 4
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together
Notably Juror #2
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Robert Ben Garant
Director
2 films together · 5.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Reno 911!: The Hunt for QAnonMike Mitchell
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kung Fu Panda 4Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Juror #2Judd Apatow
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The 40 Year Old VirginJay Roach
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Meet the FockersPeter Segal
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Get SmartBen Falcone
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 BossSteven Brill
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Drillbit TaylorSeth Gordon
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Four ChristmasesChristian Hoffman
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Reno 911!: It's a Wonderful HeistJerry Seinfeld
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
UnfrostedSix 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
Juror #2
as Marcus
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Four Christmases
as Stan
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Black Dynamite
as Chocolate Giddy-Up
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Get Smart
as Tate
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Black Dynamite
as Chocolate Giddy-Up
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. Cedric Yarbrough 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
14 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
Black Dynamite
as Chocolate Giddy-Up
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Black Dynamite
as Chocolate Giddy-Up
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Four Christmases
as Stan
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Get Smart
as Tate
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Kung Fu Panda 4
as Bull Officer #1 / Ram Foreman / Questioned Boar (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Kung Fu Panda 4
as Bull Officer #1 / Ram Foreman / Questioned Boar (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Kung Fu Panda 4
as Bull Officer #1 / Ram Foreman / Questioned Boar (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Meet the Fockers
as Prison Guard
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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Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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