Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#4497
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Gillian Vigman 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.
Gillian Vigman appears in 21 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Gillian. The Holdovers is the clearest case: a film rated 7.6 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 family, drama, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Kobi Libii, Alexander Payne, Steven Brill and others, Gillian Vigman 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.
The Holdovers (2023) as Judy Clotfelter · Forever My Girl (2018) as Doris Grossnickle Hines · The Hangover (2009) as Stephanie
Career snapshot
Ranked #4497 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
21
2004–2024
Career length
20 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.6
The Holdovers
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.6
The Holdovers
Most frequent director
Todd Phillips
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Todd Phillips
Most common genre
Comedy
19 titles
Average runtime
1h 37m
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
2020s
6.6 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. The Long Game, Snack Shack, The American Society of Magical Negroes — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
6.6
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
6.6
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. The Hangover, Aliens in the Attic, All About Steve.
Most productive era
2010s
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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.21 film | 7.32 films | 7.33 films |
| Action | 6.21 film | 6.11 film | — |
| Comedy | 6.27 films | 6.48 films | 6.54 films |
| Crime | 6.21 film | 5.61 film | — |
| Romance | 6.41 film | 7.22 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2004After the Sunset
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Exhibit Guide.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2009The Hangover
7.6 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
2024Golden Child
The current state of the argument, as Nadine.
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.
21 of 21 films
as Judy Clotfelter
Directed by Alexander Payne
as Doris Grossnickle Hines
Directed by Unknown
as Stephanie
Directed by Todd Phillips
as Helen
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
Judy Clotfelter
The Holdovers (2023)
Performance score7.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Judy Clotfelter gives Gillian Vigman a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Doris Grossnickle Hines
Forever My Girl (2018)
Performance score7.4
Forever My Girl asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Doris Grossnickle Hines is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Stephanie
The Hangover (2009)
Performance score7.4
The Hangover asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Stephanie is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Jean
Snack Shack (2024)
Performance score7.3
Snack Shack asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jean 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 Judy Clotfelter
Start here. The Holdovers is the clearest statement of what Gillian Vigman does — accessible, 133 minutes, and rated 7.6 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Gillian 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 Hangover (2009)
Keeps the comedy register of The Holdovers but asks for a colder reading of it.
Adventures in Babysitting (2016)
Keeps the comedy register of The Hangover but asks for a colder reading of it.
Forever My Girl (2018)
Same director as Adventures in Babysitting, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Snack Shack (2024)
Same director as Forever My Girl, 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.
Todd Phillips
Director
3 films together
Notably The Hangover
Brett Ratner
Director
1 film together
Notably After the Sunset
Judd Apatow
Director
1 film together
Notably The 40 Year Old Virgin
Adam McKay
Director
1 film together
Notably Step Brothers
Kevin Heffernan
Director
1 film together
Notably The Slammin' Salmon
Phil Traill
Director
1 film together
Notably All About Steve
Shawn Levy
Director
1 film together
Notably Date Night
Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Director
1 film together
Notably The Kings of Summer
Steven Brill
Director
1 film together
Notably Walk of Shame
Alexander Payne
Director
1 film together
Notably The Holdovers
Kobi Libii
Director
1 film together
Notably The American Society of Magical Negroes
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Todd Phillips
Director
3 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The HangoverAlexander Payne
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The HoldoversJordan Vogt-Roberts
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 Kings of SummerAdam McKay
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Step BrothersJudd Apatow
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 40 Year Old VirginBrett Ratner
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
After the SunsetShawn Levy
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Date NightSteven Brill
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Walk of ShameKevin Heffernan
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 Slammin' SalmonPhil Traill
Director
1 film together · 5.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
All About SteveKobi Libii
Director
1 film together · 4.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The American Society of Magical NegroesSix 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 Holdovers
as Judy Clotfelter
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Forever My Girl
as Doris Grossnickle Hines
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
The Hangover
as Stephanie
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Walk of Shame
as Female Blooper Anchor #1
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Holdovers
as Judy Clotfelter
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. Gillian Vigman 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
20 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
19 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
Forever My Girl
as Doris Grossnickle Hines
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Hangover
as Stephanie
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Forever My Girl
as Doris Grossnickle Hines
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The American Society of Magical Negroes
as Andrea
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Holdovers
as Judy Clotfelter
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Date Night
as House-Hunting Woman
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
After the Sunset
as Exhibit Guide
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Hangover
as Stephanie
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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