Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2613
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
George López 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.
George López appears in 25 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without George. School Dance 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, fantasy, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Derek Drymon, Charles Stone III, Ángel Manuel Soto and others, George López 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.
School Dance (2014) as Oscar · Spare Parts (2015) as Fredi Cameron · The Underdoggs (2024) as Coach Feis
Career snapshot
Ranked #2613 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
25
2007–2025
Career length
18 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.4
School Dance
Average Nutevio score
6.1
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.4
School Dance
Most frequent director
Sean McNamara
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Sean McNamara
Most common genre
Comedy
17 titles
Average runtime
1h 36m
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
6.3
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
6.4 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. El Chicano, Spare Parts, Rio 2 — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.4
Across 9 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.4
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2000s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Swing Vote, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Balls of Fury.
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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 5.81 film | 7.13 films | 6.02 films |
| Action | — | 5.91 film | 6.24 films |
| Thriller | — | — | 6.21 film |
| Comedy | 5.53 films | 6.27 films | 6.07 films |
| Crime | 5.31 film | — | 5.71 film |
| Romance | 5.41 film | 5.91 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2007Balls of Fury
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Agent Ernie Rodriquez.
Highest rated performance
2014School Dance
7.4 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2015Spare Parts
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2025The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants
The current state of the argument, as JK Fishlips (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.
25 of 25 films
as Fredi Cameron
Directed by Sean McNamara
as Oscar
Directed by Nick Cannon
as Rafael (voice)
Directed by Carlos Saldanha
as Coach Feis
Directed by Charles Stone III
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
Fredi Cameron
Spare Parts (2015)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Fredi Cameron gives George López a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Oscar
School Dance (2014)
Performance score7.5
School Dance asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Oscar is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Rafael (voice)
Rio (2011)
Performance score7.0
Rio asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Rafael (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Coach Feis
The Underdoggs (2024)
Performance score6.9
The Underdoggs asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Coach Feis 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 Fredi Cameron
Start here. Spare Parts is the clearest statement of what George López does — accessible, 115 minutes, and rated 7.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet George 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.
Rio (2011)
A deliberate change of key after Spare Parts — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
School Dance (2014)
Keeps the comedy register of Rio but asks for a colder reading of it.
LA Originals (2020)
A deliberate change of key after School Dance — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Underdoggs (2024)
A deliberate change of key after LA Originals — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Carlos Saldanha
Director
2 films together
Notably Rio
Sean McNamara
Director
2 films together
Notably Spare Parts
Robert Ben Garant
Director
1 film together
Notably Balls of Fury
Raja Gosnell
Director
1 film together
Notably Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Brian Levant
Director
1 film together
Notably The Spy Next Door
Garry Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably Valentine's Day
Nick Cannon
Director
1 film together
Notably School Dance
Ben Hernandez Bray
Director
1 film together
Notably El Chicano
Troy Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably George Lopez: We'll Do It for Half
Jay Karas
Director
1 film together
Notably Feeding America Comedy Festival
David Ayer
Director
1 film together
Notably The Tax Collector
Christo Stamboliev
Director
1 film together
Notably The Boss Baby: Christmas Bonus
Charlie Day
Director
1 film together
Notably Fool's Paradise
Ángel Manuel Soto
Director
1 film together
Notably Blue Beetle
Charles Stone III
Director
1 film together
Notably The Underdoggs
Derek Drymon
Director
1 film together
Notably The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Sean McNamara
Director
2 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Spare PartsCarlos Saldanha
Director
2 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
RioNick Cannon
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
School DanceCharles Stone III
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The UnderdoggsDerek Drymon
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePantsChristo Stamboliev
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Boss Baby: Christmas BonusÁngel Manuel Soto
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Blue BeetleBen Hernandez Bray
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
El ChicanoGarry Marshall
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Valentine's DayBrian Levant
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Spy Next DoorJay Karas
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Feeding America Comedy FestivalDavid Ayer
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Tax CollectorRaja Gosnell
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Beverly Hills ChihuahuaTroy Miller
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
George Lopez: We'll Do It for HalfRobert Ben Garant
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Balls of FuryCharlie Day
Director
1 film together · 4.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fool's ParadiseSix 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
Spare Parts
as Fredi Cameron
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
as Papi (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
School Dance
as Oscar
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Fool's Paradise
as George Lopez
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Spare Parts
as Fredi Cameron
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. George López 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
17 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
School Dance
as Oscar
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
No Man's Land
as Ramirez
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
as Papi (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants
as JK Fishlips (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Blue Beetle
as Rudy Reyes
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Blue Beetle
as Rudy Reyes
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
School Dance
as Oscar
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Swing Vote
as John Sweeney
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
Elliot Page
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Have your say
Community
Which George López 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
