Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#5048
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Dave Chappelle represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 30 years in, and Dave is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Dave Chappelle appears in 19 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Dave. Devil's Pie: D'Angelo is the clearest case: a film rated 10.0 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 documentary, comedy, music. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Angus Wall, Stan Lathan, Mike Binder and others, Dave Chappelle 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.
Devil's Pie: D'Angelo (2019) as Self · The One and Only Dick Gregory (2021) as Self · Madonna: Madame X (2021) as Self
Career snapshot
Ranked #5048 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
19
1996–2026
Career length
30 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
10.0
Devil's Pie: D'Angelo
Average Nutevio score
7.0
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
10.0
Devil's Pie: D'Angelo
Most frequent director
Stan Lathan
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Stan Lathan
Most common genre
Comedy
10 titles
Average runtime
1h 28m
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
6.9
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
8.4 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones, Devil's Pie: D'Angelo, A Star Is Born — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
8.4
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
8.4
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. You've Got Mail, Con Air, The Nutty Professor.
Most productive era
2020s
12 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 | — | — | 7.51 film | — |
| Action | 6.91 film | 5.91 film | — | — |
| Thriller | 6.91 film | — | — | — |
| Comedy | 6.32 films | 5.91 film | 7.61 film | 6.66 films |
| Crime | 6.91 film | — | — | — |
| Romance | 6.32 films | — | 7.51 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Reggie Warrington.
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. 10.0 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
2026AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Eddie Murphy
The current state of the argument, as Self.
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.
19 of 19 films
as Self
Directed by Unknown
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
Self
Devil's Pie: D'Angelo (2019)
Performance score9.7
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Self gives Dave Chappelle a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Self
Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones (2019)
Performance score8.1
Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Self
8:46 (2020)
Performance score8.0
8:46 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Self
The One and Only Dick Gregory (2021)
Performance score7.9
The One and Only Dick Gregory asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self 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 Self
Start here. Devil's Pie: D'Angelo is the clearest statement of what Dave Chappelle does — accessible, 77 minutes, and rated 10.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Dave 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.
Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones (2019)
A deliberate change of key after Devil's Pie: D'Angelo — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
8:46 (2020)
Keeps the comedy register of Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones but asks for a colder reading of it.
The One and Only Dick Gregory (2021)
Same director as 8:46, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Dave Chappelle: The Closer (2021)
A deliberate change of key after The One and Only Dick Gregory — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Stan Lathan
Director
3 films together
Notably Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones
Tom Shadyac
Director
1 film together
Notably The Nutty Professor
Simon West
Director
1 film together
Notably Con Air
Nora Ephron
Director
1 film together
Notably You've Got Mail
Malcolm D. Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably Undercover Brother
Bradley Cooper
Director
1 film together
Notably A Star Is Born
Billy Corben
Director
1 film together
Notably 537 Votes
Matthew Akers
Director
1 film together
Notably David Blaine: The Magic Way
Jeff Tomsic
Director
1 film together
Notably Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special
Mike Binder
Director
1 film together
Notably Dirty Daddy: The Bob Saget Tribute
Angus Wall
Director
1 film together
Notably Being Eddie
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Stan Lathan
Director
3 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Dave Chappelle: Sticks & StonesBradley Cooper
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Star Is BornBilly Corben
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
537 VotesSimon West
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Con AirAngus Wall
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Being EddieNora Ephron
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
You've Got MailJeff Tomsic
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Norm Macdonald: Nothing SpecialMatthew Akers
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
David Blaine: The Magic WayMalcolm D. Lee
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Undercover BrotherTom Shadyac
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Nutty ProfessorMike Binder
Director
1 film together · 4.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dirty Daddy: The Bob Saget TributeSix 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
Devil's Pie: D'Angelo
as Self
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 Star Is Born
as George "Noodles" Stone
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Devil's Pie: D'Angelo
as Self
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Madonna: Madame X
as Self
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Devil's Pie: D'Angelo
as Self
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. Dave Chappelle 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
30 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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
10 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
Devil's Pie: D'Angelo
as Self
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Devil's Pie: D'Angelo
as Self
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
A Star Is Born
as George "Noodles" Stone
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Con Air
as "Pinball" Parker
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Devil's Pie: D'Angelo
as Self
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Con Air
as "Pinball" Parker
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
A Star Is Born
as George "Noodles" Stone
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Nutty Professor
as Reggie Warrington
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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