Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#6001
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Clifton Powell represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 34 years in, and Clifton is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Clifton Powell appears in 17 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Clifton. Deb is Boss is the clearest case: a film rated 9.0 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, crime. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Trey Haley, Benny Boom, David Ayer and others, Clifton Powell 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.
Deb is Boss (2026) as James · Gangster's Daughter (2023) · Boxed In (2022) as Pa
Career snapshot
Ranked #6001 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
17
1992–2026
Career length
34 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.0
Deb is Boss
Average Nutevio score
5.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
9.0
Deb is Boss
Most frequent director
Trey Haley
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Trey Haley
Most common genre
Drama
10 titles
Average runtime
1h 43m
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
6.6
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
6.7 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Rush Hour, Deep Rising, Dead Presidents — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.7
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.7
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. Rush Hour, Deep Rising, Dead Presidents.
Most productive era
2020s
9 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 | 6.71 film | 6.71 film | 6.71 film | 4.37 films |
| Action | 6.74 films | 6.22 films | — | — |
| Thriller | 6.81 film | 6.71 film | — | 3.62 films |
| Comedy | 7.21 film | 5.72 films | — | — |
| Crime | 6.93 films | 6.71 film | — | 4.52 films |
| Romance | — | — | — | 6.32 films |
| Horror | 6.21 film | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1992Deep Cover
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Leland.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.0 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
2026Deb is Boss
The current state of the argument, as James.
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.
17 of 17 films
as James
Directed by Trey Haley
as Luke
Directed by Brett Ratner
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
James
Deb is Boss (2026)
Performance score9.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. James gives Clifton Powell a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Gangster's Daughter
Gangster's Daughter (2023)
Performance score9.1
Gangster's Daughter 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 movie#3
Pa
Boxed In (2022)
Performance score7.8
Boxed In asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Pa is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Hank
TKO (2025)
Performance score7.1
TKO asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Hank 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 James
Start here. Deb is Boss is the clearest statement of what Clifton Powell does — accessible, 100 minutes, and rated 9.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Clifton 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.
Rush Hour (1998)
A deliberate change of key after Deb is Boss — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Boxed In (2022)
A deliberate change of key after Rush Hour — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Gangster's Daughter (2023)
Same director as Boxed In, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
TKO (2025)
Same director as Gangster's Daughter, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Bill Duke
Director
1 film together
Notably Deep Cover
Albert Hughes
Director
1 film together
Notably Dead Presidents
Stephen Sommers
Director
1 film together
Notably Deep Rising
Brett Ratner
Director
1 film together
Notably Rush Hour
Brian Robbins
Director
1 film together
Notably Norbit
David Ayer
Director
1 film together
Notably Street Kings
Benny Boom
Director
1 film together
Notably All Eyez on Me
Trey Haley
Director
1 film together
Notably Deb is Boss
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Trey Haley
Director
1 film together · 9.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Deb is BossBrett Ratner
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rush HourBill Duke
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Deep CoverBenny Boom
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
All Eyez on MeDavid Ayer
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Street KingsAlbert 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 PresidentsStephen Sommers
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Deep RisingBrian Robbins
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
NorbitSix 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
Deb is Boss
as James
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Boxed In
as Pa
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Gangster's Daughter
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Deep Cover
as Leland
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Deb is Boss
as James
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. Clifton Powell 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
34 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
10 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
Deb is Boss
as James
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Gangster's Daughter
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Boxed In
as Pa
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Lust: A Seven Deadly Sins Story
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Deb is Boss
as James
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Deep Rising
as Mason
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Street Kings
as Sergeant Green
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Rush Hour
as Luke
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Reference
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