Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#9979
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
David Lengel 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.
David Lengel appears in 10 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without David. Richard Jewell is the clearest case: a film rated 7.4 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, family, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Eric Appel, David O. Russell, Simon West and others, David Lengel 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.
Richard Jewell (2019) as Cameraman · Jungle Cruise (2021) as Boat Tourist · The Breadwinner (2026) as Spelling Bee Proctor
Career snapshot
Ranked #9979 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
10
2019–2026
Career length
7 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.4
Richard Jewell
Average Nutevio score
5.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.5
The Breadwinner
Most frequent director
Eric Appel
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Eric Appel
Most common genre
Comedy
8 titles
Average runtime
1h 39m
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
7.4 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Richard Jewell — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
7.4
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
7.4
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. Richard Jewell.
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 | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.41 film | 0.01 film |
| Action | — | 6.24 films |
| Comedy | — | 6.58 films |
| Crime | 7.41 film | 6.41 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2019Richard Jewell
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Cameraman. 7.4 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
2026Madden
The current state of the argument, as Trainer Tony.
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.
10 of 10 films
as Boat Tourist
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra
as Cameraman
Directed by Clint Eastwood
as Spelling Bee Proctor
Directed by Eric Appel
as Trainer Tony
Directed by David O. Russell
as Stevie
Directed by Simon West
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
Boat Tourist
Jungle Cruise (2021)
Performance score7.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Boat Tourist gives David Lengel a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Cameraman
Richard Jewell (2019)
Performance score7.2
Richard Jewell asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Cameraman is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Spelling Bee Proctor
The Breadwinner (2026)
Performance score6.8
The Breadwinner asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Spelling Bee Proctor is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Trainer Tony
Madden (2026)
Performance score6.5
Madden asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Trainer Tony 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 Boat Tourist
Start here. Jungle Cruise is the clearest statement of what David Lengel does — accessible, 127 minutes, and rated 7.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet David 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.
Richard Jewell (2019)
A deliberate change of key after Jungle Cruise — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Bride Hard (2025)
A deliberate change of key after Richard Jewell — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Breadwinner (2026)
Keeps the comedy register of Bride Hard but asks for a colder reading of it.
Madden (2026)
A deliberate change of key after The Breadwinner — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together
Notably Richard Jewell
Craig Brewer
Director
1 film together
Notably Coming 2 America
Jaume Collet-Serra
Director
1 film together
Notably Jungle Cruise
Henry Joost
Director
1 film together
Notably Secret Headquarters
Anton Cropper
Director
1 film together
Notably Fantasy Football
Akiva Schaffer
Director
1 film together
Notably The Naked Gun
Simon West
Director
1 film together
Notably Bride Hard
David O. Russell
Director
1 film together
Notably Madden
Eric Appel
Director
1 film together
Notably The Breadwinner
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Richard JewellJaume Collet-Serra
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jungle CruiseEric Appel
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The BreadwinnerAnton Cropper
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fantasy FootballAkiva Schaffer
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 Naked GunHenry Joost
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Secret HeadquartersCraig Brewer
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Coming 2 AmericaSimon West
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bride HardDavid O. Russell
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MaddenSix 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
Richard Jewell
as Cameraman
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Richard Jewell
as Cameraman
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Richard Jewell
as Cameraman
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Naked Gun
as Mr. Ice Cream Agent (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Jungle Cruise
as Boat Tourist
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. David Lengel 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
8 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
Jungle Cruise
as Boat Tourist
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Richard Jewell
as Cameraman
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Madden
as Trainer Tony
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Jungle Cruise
as Boat Tourist
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Jungle Cruise
as Boat Tourist
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Naked Gun
as Mr. Ice Cream Agent (uncredited)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Richard Jewell
as Cameraman
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Secret Headquarters
as Coach Skipper
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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