Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#4311
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Chris Sullivan 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.
Chris Sullivan appears in 15 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Chris. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the clearest case: a film rated 7.8 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 action, science fiction, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Timur Bekmambetov, Eric Fogel, Mike Roth and others, Chris Sullivan 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.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) as Taserface · The Normal Heart (2014) as Mike the Tech · Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) as Ladbroc
Career snapshot
Ranked #4311 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
15
2006–2026
Career length
20 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.8
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.7
The Normal Heart
Most frequent director
Timur Bekmambetov
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Timur Bekmambetov
Most common genre
Drama
8 titles
Average runtime
1h 46m
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
7.6 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.6
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
7.4
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. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 6.56 films | 5.12 films |
| Action | 7.61 film | 7.02 films | 6.82 films |
| Thriller | — | 6.02 films | 6.23 films |
| Comedy | — | — | 5.82 films |
| Crime | — | 6.53 films | — |
| Horror | — | 5.32 films | 5.23 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2006Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Ladbroc.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2017Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
7.8 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
2026Mercy
The current state of the argument, as Rob Nelson.
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.
15 of 15 films
as Taserface
Directed by James Gunn
as Mike the Tech
Directed by Ryan Murphy
as Ladbroc
Directed by Gore Verbinski
as Rob Nelson
Directed by Timur Bekmambetov
as Orankle
Directed by Logan Marshall-Green
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
Taserface
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Performance score7.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Taserface gives Chris Sullivan a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Mike the Tech
The Normal Heart (2014)
Performance score7.5
The Normal Heart asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mike the Tech is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Ladbroc
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Performance score7.4
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ladbroc is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Rob Nelson
Mercy (2026)
Performance score7.2
Mercy asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Rob Nelson 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 Taserface
Start here. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the clearest statement of what Chris Sullivan does — accessible, 137 minutes, and rated 7.8 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Chris 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.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Keeps the action register of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Normal Heart (2014)
A deliberate change of key after Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Adopt a Highway (2019)
Keeps the drama register of The Normal Heart but asks for a colder reading of it.
Mercy (2026)
A deliberate change of key after Adopt a Highway — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Gore Verbinski
Director
1 film together
Notably Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Michaël R. Roskam
Director
1 film together
Notably The Drop
Ryan Murphy
Director
1 film together
Notably The Normal Heart
Luke Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably Morgan
Ben Affleck
Director
1 film together
Notably Live by Night
James Gunn
Director
1 film together
Notably Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Logan Marshall-Green
Director
1 film together
Notably Adopt a Highway
Mike Roth
Director
1 film together
Notably Merry Little Batman
Eric Fogel
Director
1 film together
Notably Megamind vs. the Doom Syndicate
Timur Bekmambetov
Director
1 film together
Notably Mercy
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
James Gunn
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2Ryan Murphy
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Normal HeartGore Verbinski
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's ChestTimur Bekmambetov
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MercyMichaël R. Roskam
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 DropLogan Marshall-Green
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Adopt a HighwayMike Roth
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Merry Little BatmanBen Affleck
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Live by NightLuke Scott
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MorganEric Fogel
Director
1 film together · 5.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Megamind vs. the Doom SyndicateSix 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
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
as Taserface
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
The Normal Heart
as Mike the Tech
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
as Taserface
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
as Ladbroc
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
as Taserface
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. Chris Sullivan 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
20 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.
Drama Legend
Awarded
8 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
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
as Ladbroc
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
as Taserface
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Normal Heart
as Mike the Tech
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Broadcast Signal Intrusion
as Phreaker
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
as Taserface
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
as Ladbroc
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Imperium
as Andrew Sheehan
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
as Ladbroc
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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