Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1782
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Ice Cube represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 34 years in, and Ice is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Ice Cube appears in 22 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Ice. The Book of Life is the clearest case: a film rated 7.5 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 science fiction, thriller, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Rich Lee, Tom Gormican, Jeff Rowe and others, Ice Cube 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 Book of Life (2014) as Candle Maker (voice) · Boyz n the Hood (1991) as Doughboy · Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) as Superfly (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #1782 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
22
1991–2025
Career length
34 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
The Book of Life
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.6
Boyz n the Hood
Most frequent director
Tim Story
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Tim Story
Most common genre
Comedy
13 titles
Average runtime
1h 44m
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
6.6
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
6.6 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Fist Fight, Ride Along 2, Ride Along — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.6
Across 8 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.5
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. Three Kings, Anaconda, Higher Learning.
Most productive era
2010s
8 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 | 6.92 films | 6.51 film | 5.91 film | 6.81 film |
| Action | 6.71 film | 5.93 films | 6.74 films | 7.11 film |
| Thriller | 5.92 films | 6.11 film | — | 5.01 film |
| Comedy | 6.71 film | 6.23 films | 6.56 films | 6.73 films |
| Crime | 6.92 films | 6.11 film | 6.63 films | — |
| Romance | — | — | — | 6.81 film |
| Horror | 5.61 film | 5.61 film | — | 6.21 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance · Career peak
1991Boyz n the Hood
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Doughboy. 7.5 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
2025Anaconda
The current state of the argument, as Ice Cube.
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.
22 of 22 films
as Doughboy
Directed by John Singleton
as Candle Maker (voice)
Directed by Jorge R. Gutierrez
as Jack Robertson
Directed by Nisha Ganatra
as Calvin Palmer
Directed by Tim Story
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
Doughboy
Boyz n the Hood (1991)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Doughboy gives Ice Cube a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Candle Maker (voice)
The Book of Life (2014)
Performance score7.3
The Book of Life asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Candle Maker (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Jack Robertson
The High Note (2020)
Performance score7.2
The High Note asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jack Robertson is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Calvin Palmer
Barbershop (2002)
Performance score7.2
Barbershop asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Calvin Palmer 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 Doughboy
Start here. Boyz n the Hood is the clearest statement of what Ice Cube does — accessible, 112 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Ice 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.
Barbershop (2002)
Keeps the drama register of Boyz n the Hood but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Book of Life (2014)
A deliberate change of key after Barbershop — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The High Note (2020)
A deliberate change of key after The Book of Life — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert (2020)
Keeps the music register of The High Note but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Tim Story
Director
3 films together
Notably Barbershop
John Singleton
Director
2 films together
Notably Boyz n the Hood
Phil Lord
Director
2 films together
Notably 22 Jump Street
Luis Llosa
Director
1 film together
Notably Anaconda
David O. Russell
Director
1 film together
Notably Three Kings
John Carpenter
Director
1 film together
Notably Ghosts of Mars
Kevin Bray
Director
1 film together
Notably All About the Benjamins
Erik White
Director
1 film together
Notably Lottery Ticket
Jorge R. Gutierrez
Director
1 film together
Notably The Book of Life
Richie Keen
Director
1 film together
Notably Fist Fight
Nisha Ganatra
Director
1 film together
Notably The High Note
Nas
Director
1 film together
Notably You're Watching Video Music Box
Jeff Rowe
Director
1 film together
Notably Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Tom Gormican
Director
1 film together
Notably Anaconda
Rich Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably War of the Worlds
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Tim Story
Director
3 films together · 6.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
BarbershopPhil Lord
Director
2 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
22 Jump StreetJohn Singleton
Director
2 films together · 6.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Boyz n the HoodJorge R. Gutierrez
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Book of LifeJeff Rowe
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant MayhemNisha Ganatra
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 High NoteDavid O. Russell
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Three KingsNas
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
You're Watching Video Music BoxRichie Keen
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fist FightTom Gormican
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AnacondaKevin Bray
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
All About the BenjaminsErik White
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lottery TicketJohn Carpenter
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ghosts of MarsLuis Llosa
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AnacondaRich Lee
Director
1 film together · 5.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
War of the WorldsSix 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
Boyz n the Hood
as Doughboy
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
The Book of Life
as Candle Maker (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
Boyz n the Hood
as Doughboy
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
You're Watching Video Music Box
as Self (archive footage)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Boyz n the Hood
as Doughboy
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. Ice Cube 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
34 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
13 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
The Book of Life
as Candle Maker (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Boyz n the Hood
as Doughboy
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The High Note
as Jack Robertson
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Book of Life
as Candle Maker (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
as Superfly (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
All About the Benjamins
as Bucum
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The High Note
as Jack Robertson
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
War of the Worlds
as William Radford
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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