Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#952
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Dan Fogler is the performer our scores keep defending against the popular vote — a career of films that get better the further you stand from their release week.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Dan Fogler appears in 25 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Dan. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the clearest case: a film rated 7.5 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 romance, drama, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Chris Foggin, James Mangold, Kyle Marshall and others, Dan Fogler 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.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) as Jacob Kowalski · Kung Fu Panda (2008) as Zeng (voice) · DC League of Super-Pets (2022) as Carl / Pilot / Racer (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #952 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
25
2006–2025
Career length
19 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.3
Kung Fu Panda
Most frequent director
David Yates
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With David Yates
Most common genre
Comedy
16 titles
Average runtime
1h 42m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.9
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
2020s
6.5 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. Juliet & Romeo, Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger, A Complete Unknown — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
6.5
Across 9 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.1
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. Taking Woodstock, Love Happens, Fanboys.
Most productive era
2010s
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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.22 films | 6.11 film | 6.35 films |
| Action | 7.51 film | 5.83 films | 6.71 film |
| Comedy | 6.46 films | 6.16 films | 6.54 films |
| Crime | 6.02 films | — | — |
| Romance | 6.02 films | 6.02 films | 6.31 film |
| Horror | — | 5.41 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Zack.
Highest rated performance
2008Kung Fu Panda
7.5 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2016Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2025Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger
The current state of the argument, as Detective Adams.
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.
25 of 25 films
as Jacob Kowalski
Directed by David Yates
as Jacob Kowalski
Directed by David Yates
as Zeng (voice)
Directed by Mark Osborne
as Jacob Kowalski
Directed by David Yates
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
Jacob Kowalski
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Jacob Kowalski gives Dan Fogler a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Jacob Kowalski
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)
Performance score7.4
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jacob Kowalski is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Zeng (voice)
Kung Fu Panda (2008)
Performance score7.3
Kung Fu Panda asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Zeng (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Albert Grossman
A Complete Unknown (2024)
Performance score7.1
A Complete Unknown asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Albert Grossman 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 Jacob Kowalski
Start here. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the clearest statement of what Dan Fogler does — accessible, 133 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Dan 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 (2008)
A deliberate change of key after Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)
A deliberate change of key after Kung Fu Panda — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)
Same director as Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
A Complete Unknown (2024)
A deliberate change of key after Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
David Yates
Director
3 films together
Notably Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Todd Phillips
Director
1 film together
Notably School for Scoundrels
Robert Ben Garant
Director
1 film together
Notably Balls of Fury
Mark Osborne
Director
1 film together
Notably Kung Fu Panda
Ang Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably Taking Woodstock
Tim Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably Kung Fu Panda Holiday
Michael Dowse
Director
1 film together
Notably Take Me Home Tonight
Simon Wells
Director
1 film together
Notably Mars Needs Moms
Kevin Smith
Director
1 film together
Notably Jay and Silent Bob Reboot
Robert Schwartzman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Argument
Kyle Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably No Time to Spy: A Loud House Movie
James Mangold
Director
1 film together
Notably A Complete Unknown
Chris Foggin
Director
1 film together
Notably Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
David Yates
Director
3 films together · 7.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find ThemMark Osborne
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kung Fu PandaJames Mangold
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Complete UnknownTim Johnson
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kung Fu Panda HolidayKyle Marshall
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
No Time to Spy: A Loud House MovieChris Foggin
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bank of Dave 2: The Loan RangerAng Lee
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Taking WoodstockSimon Wells
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mars Needs MomsMichael Dowse
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Take Me Home TonightKevin Smith
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jay and Silent Bob RebootRobert Schwartzman
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The ArgumentTodd Phillips
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
School for ScoundrelsRobert Ben Garant
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Balls of FurySix 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
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
as Jacob Kowalski
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
A Complete Unknown
as Albert Grossman
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Kung Fu Panda
as Zeng (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Sharknado 5: Global Swarming
as Dan Fogler
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
as Jacob Kowalski
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. Dan Fogler 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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
16 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
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
as Jacob Kowalski
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Kung Fu Panda
as Zeng (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Juliet & Romeo
as The Apothecary
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
as Jacob Kowalski
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Kung Fu Panda
as Zeng (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
No Time to Spy: A Loud House Movie
as Dr. Dufus (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
No Time to Spy: A Loud House Movie
as Dr. Dufus (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Hollywood Signs
as Self
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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