Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2,404
of 15,890 eligible performers
Top 25%
Darren Criss 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.
Darren Criss appears in 17 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Darren. Justice Society: World War II 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 action, science fiction, animation. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Jeff Wamester, Pamela Adlon, Russell Norman and others, Darren Criss 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.
Justice Society: World War II (2021) as Superman / Clark Kent (voice) · Midway (2019) as Commander Eugene Lindsey · Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One (2024) as Superman / Earth-2 Superman (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #2,404 of 15,890 eligible performers in the Nutevio catalogue.
Films in Nutevio
17
2019–2026
Career length
7 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.1
Justice Society: World War II
Average Nutevio score
5.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.3
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love
Most frequent director
Jeff Wamester
6 films together
Longest collaboration
6×
With Jeff Wamester
Most common genre
Science Fiction
8 titles
Average runtime
1h 29m
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
6.1
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
2010s
7.0 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Midway — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
7.0
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
7.2
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2010s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Midway.
Most productive era
2020s
15 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 | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.11 film | — |
| Action | 7.01 film | 6.86 films |
| Comedy | 7.01 film | 5.15 films |
| Crime | 7.01 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2019Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Raphael (voice).
Highest rated performance
2019Midway
7.1 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2026MISCAST26
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.
17 of 17 films
as Superman / Clark Kent (voice)
Directed by Chris Palmer
as Superman / Earth-2 Superman (voice)
Directed by Jeff Wamester
as Raphael (voice)
Directed by Jake Castorena
as Superman / Earth-2 Superman (voice)
Directed by Jeff Wamester
as Superman / Agent Kent (voice)
Directed by Jeff Wamester
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
Superman / Clark Kent (voice)
Superman: Man of Tomorrow (2020)
Performance score7.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Superman / Clark Kent (voice) gives Darren Criss a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Superman / Earth-2 Superman (voice)
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One (2024)
Performance score7.4
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Superman / Earth-2 Superman (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Raphael (voice)
Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2019)
Performance score7.4
Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Raphael (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Superman / Earth-2 Superman (voice)
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Three (2024)
Performance score7.3
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Three asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Superman / Earth-2 Superman (voice) 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 Superman / Clark Kent (voice)
Start here. Superman: Man of Tomorrow is the clearest statement of what Darren Criss does — accessible, 87 minutes, and rated 6.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Darren 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.
Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2019)
Keeps the action register of Superman: Man of Tomorrow but asks for a colder reading of it.
Justice League: Warworld (2023)
Keeps the action register of Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but asks for a colder reading of it.
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One (2024)
Same director as Justice League: Warworld, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Three (2024)
Same director as Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One, 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.
Jeff Wamester
Director
6 films together
Notably Justice Society: World War II
Roland Emmerich
Director
1 film together
Notably Midway
Jake Castorena
Director
1 film together
Notably Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Chris Palmer
Director
1 film together
Notably Superman: Man of Tomorrow
Lonny Price
Director
1 film together
Notably Show of Titles
Kirk R. Thatcher
Director
1 film together
Notably Muppets Haunted Mansion
Mike Binder
Director
1 film together
Notably Dirty Daddy: The Bob Saget Tribute
Paul Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love
Russell Norman
Director
1 film together
Notably Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic
Pamela Adlon
Director
1 film together
Notably Babes
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Jeff Wamester
Director
6 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 6 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Justice Society: World War IIRoland Emmerich
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MidwayJake Castorena
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesChris Palmer
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Superman: Man of TomorrowPaul Miller
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + LoveRussell Norman
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of MagicKirk R. Thatcher
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Muppets Haunted MansionPamela Adlon
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BabesMike Binder
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dirty Daddy: The Bob Saget TributeLonny Price
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Show of TitlesSix 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
Midway
as Commander Eugene Lindsey
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 Disney Family Singalong
as Self - Performer
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Midway
as Commander Eugene Lindsey
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love
as Self - Guest
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Superman: Man of Tomorrow
as Superman / Clark Kent (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. Darren Criss 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.
Science Fiction Legend
Awarded
8 catalogue titles in science fiction, 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
The Disney Family Singalong
as Self - Performer
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
as Raphael (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic
as Self
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Disney Family Singalong
as Self - Performer
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
as Raphael (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
as Raphael (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
as Raphael (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Dirty Daddy: The Bob Saget Tribute
as Self
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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
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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