Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1877
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Dylan O'Brien 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.
Dylan O'Brien appears in 20 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Dylan. All Too Well: The Short Film 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, horror, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Sam Raimi, Sian Heder, Jan Komasa and others, Dylan O'Brien 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.
All Too Well: The Short Film (2021) as Him · Ben Platt: Live from Radio City Music Hall (2020) as Self · The Maze Runner (2014) as Thomas
Career snapshot
Ranked #1877 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
20
2013–2026
Career length
13 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.0
All Too Well: The Short Film
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
All Too Well: The Short Film
Most frequent director
Wes Ball
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Wes Ball
Most common genre
Thriller
9 titles
Average runtime
1h 46m
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
6.4
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
6.8 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Bumblebee, American Assassin — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.8
Across 7 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.8
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. Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Bumblebee, American Assassin.
Most productive era
2020s
13 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 | 6.91 film | 6.07 films |
| Action | 6.96 films | 6.61 film |
| Thriller | 6.94 films | 6.95 films |
| Comedy | 6.21 film | 6.95 films |
| Crime | — | 7.11 film |
| Horror | — | 7.11 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2013The Internship
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Stuart Twombly.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2021All Too Well: The Short 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.
Most recent film
2026Being Heumann
The current state of the argument, as Evan White.
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 Thomas
Directed by Wes Ball
as Paris
Directed by Celine Held
as Joel
Directed by Michael Matthews
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
Him
All Too Well: The Short Film (2021)
Performance score8.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Him gives Dylan O'Brien a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Thomas
The Maze Runner (2014)
Performance score8.0
The Maze Runner asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Thomas is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Roman / Rocky
Twinless (2025)
Performance score7.9
Twinless asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Roman / Rocky is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Paris
Caddo Lake (2024)
Performance score7.9
Caddo Lake asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Paris 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 Him
Start here. All Too Well: The Short Film is the clearest statement of what Dylan O'Brien does — accessible, 15 minutes, and rated 8.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Dylan 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.
The Maze Runner (2014)
A deliberate change of key after All Too Well: The Short Film — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Love and Monsters (2020)
A deliberate change of key after The Maze Runner — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Caddo Lake (2024)
A deliberate change of key after Love and Monsters — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Twinless (2025)
A deliberate change of key after Caddo Lake — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Wes Ball
Director
3 films together
Notably The Maze Runner
Shawn Levy
Director
1 film together
Notably The Internship
Peter Berg
Director
1 film together
Notably Deepwater Horizon
Michael Cuesta
Director
1 film together
Notably American Assassin
Travis Knight
Director
1 film together
Notably Bumblebee
Alex Timbers
Director
1 film together
Notably Ben Platt: Live from Radio City Music Hall
Michael Matthews
Director
1 film together
Notably Love and Monsters
Taylor Swift
Director
1 film together
Notably All Too Well: The Short Film
Antoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together
Notably Infinite
Quinn Shephard
Director
1 film together
Notably Not Okay
Graham Moore
Director
1 film together
Notably The Outfit
Jason Reitman
Director
1 film together
Notably Saturday Night
Celine Held
Director
1 film together
Notably Caddo Lake
Jan Komasa
Director
1 film together
Notably Anniversary
Sian Heder
Director
1 film together
Notably Being Heumann
Sam Raimi
Director
1 film together
Notably Send Help
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Wes Ball
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
The Maze RunnerTaylor Swift
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
All Too Well: The Short FilmAlex Timbers
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ben Platt: Live from Radio City Music HallCeline Held
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Caddo LakeMichael Matthews
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Love and MonstersSam Raimi
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Send HelpGraham Moore
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The OutfitJan Komasa
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AnniversaryPeter Berg
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Deepwater HorizonJason Reitman
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Saturday NightTravis Knight
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BumblebeeAntoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
InfiniteMichael Cuesta
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
American AssassinQuinn Shephard
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Not OkayShawn Levy
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The InternshipSian Heder
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Being HeumannSix 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
The Maze Runner
as Thomas
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
All Too Well: The Short Film
as Him
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
All Too Well: The Short Film
as Him
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Ben Platt: Live from Radio City Music Hall
as Self
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
All Too Well: The Short Film
as Him
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. Dylan O'Brien 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.
Thriller Legend
Awarded
9 catalogue titles in thriller, 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
All Too Well: The Short Film
as Him
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Maze Runner
as Thomas
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
All Too Well: The Short Film
as Him
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Flashback
as Fred Fitzell
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Maze Runner
as Thomas
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Maze Runner: The Death Cure
as Thomas
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
All Too Well: The Short Film
as Him
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Maze Runner
as Thomas
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Matt Damon
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Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Elliot Page
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Christian Bale
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Have your say
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Reference
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