Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#601
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Daniel Dae Kim represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 28 years in, and Daniel is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Daniel Dae Kim appears in 20 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Daniel. KPop Demon Hunters is the clearest case: a film rated 8.0 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 comedy, fantasy, music. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Chris Appelhans, Adele Lim, Don Hall and others, Daniel Dae Kim 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.
KPop Demon Hunters (2025) as Healer Han / Additional Voices (voice) · Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) as Benja (voice) · Spider-Man 2 (2004) as Raymond
Career snapshot
Ranked #601 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
20
1997–2025
Career length
28 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.0
KPop Demon Hunters
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
KPop Demon Hunters
Most frequent director
Robert Schwentke
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Robert Schwentke
Most common genre
Action
10 titles
Average runtime
1h 51m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
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
2020s
6.9 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. KPop Demon Hunters, Getting LOST, Joy Ride — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
6.9
Across 6 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
6.9
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. For Love of the Game, The Jackal.
Most productive era
2000s
6 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 | 6.41 film | 6.72 films | 7.21 film | 6.32 films |
| Action | 6.41 film | 6.24 films | 5.84 films | 7.81 film |
| Thriller | 6.41 film | 5.41 film | 5.82 films | 6.01 film |
| Comedy | — | 6.21 film | 6.61 film | 7.32 films |
| Crime | 6.41 film | 6.11 film | — | — |
| Romance | 6.41 film | — | 6.61 film | — |
| Horror | — | 5.41 film | 5.61 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1997The Jackal
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Akashi.
Highest rated performance · Career peak · Most recent film
8.0 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. The current state of the argument, as Healer Han / Additional Voices (voice).
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.
20 of 20 films
as Healer Han / Additional Voices (voice)
Directed by Chris Appelhans
as Benja (voice)
Directed by Don Hall
as Raymond
Directed by Sam Raimi
as Dr. Michael Onitsuka
Directed by Unknown
as Great-Grandfather (Young Man) (voice)
Directed by Mamoru Hosoda
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
Healer Han / Additional Voices (voice)
KPop Demon Hunters (2025)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Healer Han / Additional Voices (voice) gives Daniel Dae Kim a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Benja (voice)
Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
Performance score7.6
Raya and the Last Dragon asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Benja (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Raymond
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Performance score7.3
Spider-Man 2 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Raymond is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Dr. Michael Onitsuka
Blast Beat (2021)
Performance score7.1
Blast Beat asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dr. Michael Onitsuka 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 Healer Han / Additional Voices (voice)
Start here. KPop Demon Hunters is the clearest statement of what Daniel Dae Kim does — accessible, 96 minutes, and rated 8.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Daniel 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.
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
A deliberate change of key after KPop Demon Hunters — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Mirai (2018)
Keeps the adventure register of Spider-Man 2 but asks for a colder reading of it.
Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
Keeps the fantasy register of Mirai but asks for a colder reading of it.
Blast Beat (2021)
A deliberate change of key after Raya and the Last Dragon — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Sam Raimi
Director
2 films together
Notably Spider-Man 2
Robert Schwentke
Director
2 films together
Notably Insurgent
Michael Caton-Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably The Jackal
Ang Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably Hulk
Andrzej Bartkowiak
Director
1 film together
Notably Cradle 2 the Grave
Paul Haggis
Director
1 film together
Notably Crash
Mamoru Hosoda
Director
1 film together
Notably Mirai
Neil Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably Hellboy
Nahnatchka Khan
Director
1 film together
Notably Always Be My Maybe
Don Hall
Director
1 film together
Notably Raya and the Last Dragon
Adele Lim
Director
1 film together
Notably Joy Ride
Chris Appelhans
Director
1 film together
Notably KPop Demon Hunters
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Sam Raimi
Director
2 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Spider-Man 2Robert Schwentke
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
InsurgentChris Appelhans
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
KPop Demon HuntersDon Hall
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Raya and the Last DragonMamoru Hosoda
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MiraiPaul Haggis
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CrashNahnatchka Khan
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Always Be My MaybeAdele Lim
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Joy RideMichael Caton-Jones
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 JackalAndrzej Bartkowiak
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cradle 2 the GraveNeil Marshall
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HellboyAng Lee
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HulkSix 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
KPop Demon Hunters
as Healer Han / Additional Voices (voice)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Mirai
as Great-Grandfather (Young Man) (voice)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
KPop Demon Hunters
as Healer Han / Additional Voices (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
For Love of the Game
as ER Doctor
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
KPop Demon Hunters
as Healer Han / Additional Voices (voice)
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. Daniel Dae Kim 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
28 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.
Action Legend
Awarded
10 catalogue titles in action, 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
KPop Demon Hunters
as Healer Han / Additional Voices (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Raya and the Last Dragon
as Benja (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Mirai
as Great-Grandfather (Young Man) (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Allegiant
as Jack Kang
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Raya and the Last Dragon
as Benja (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Hellboy
as Ben Daimio
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
KPop Demon Hunters
as Healer Han / Additional Voices (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Spider-Man 2
as Raymond
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Have your say
Community
Which Daniel Dae Kim performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
Join the conversation
Reference
Continue exploring
Trending performers
Directors they work with
Collections to read next
