Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2289
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Jane Krakowski represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 39 years in, and Jane is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Jane Krakowski appears in 17 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Jane. My Little Pony: A New Generation is the clearest case: a film rated 7.7 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, romance. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Adam Shankman, Jim O'Hanlon, José Luis Ucha and others, Jane Krakowski 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.
My Little Pony: A New Generation (2021) as Queen Haven (voice) · Ice Age (2002) as Female Sloth (voice) · Go (1999) as Irene
Career snapshot
Ranked #2289 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
17
1987–2026
Career length
39 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.7
My Little Pony: A New Generation
Average Nutevio score
5.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.7
My Little Pony: A New Generation
Most frequent director
Adam Shankman
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Adam Shankman
Most common genre
Comedy
14 titles
Average runtime
1h 29m
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
6.5
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
1990s
6.8 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Go, Dance with Me — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.8
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.9
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Fatal Attraction.
Most productive era
2000s
7 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 | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.81 film | 6.71 film | 5.91 film | 5.41 film | — |
| Action | — | — | 5.91 film | 5.81 film | — |
| Thriller | 6.81 film | 7.01 film | 5.91 film | — | — |
| Comedy | — | 7.01 film | 6.16 films | 5.62 films | 5.35 films |
| Crime | — | 7.01 film | — | — | — |
| Romance | 6.81 film | 6.71 film | 5.32 films | — | 6.21 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1987Fatal Attraction
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Christine.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2021My Little Pony: A New Generation
7.7 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
The current state of the argument.
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.
17 of 17 films
as Queen Haven (voice)
Directed by José Luis Ucha
as Female Sloth (voice)
Directed by Chris Wedge
as Jacqueline White
Directed by Claire Scanlon
as Irene
Directed by Doug Liman
as Patricia Black
Directed by Randa Haines
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
Queen Haven (voice)
My Little Pony: A New Generation (2021)
Performance score7.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Queen Haven (voice) gives Jane Krakowski a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Female Sloth (voice)
Ice Age (2002)
Performance score7.4
Ice Age asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Female Sloth (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Jacqueline White
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend (2020)
Performance score6.9
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jacqueline White is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Irene
Go (1999)
Performance score6.9
Go asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Irene 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 Queen Haven (voice)
Start here. My Little Pony: A New Generation is the clearest statement of what Jane Krakowski does — accessible, 90 minutes, and rated 7.7 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Jane 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.
Dance with Me (1998)
A deliberate change of key after My Little Pony: A New Generation — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Go (1999)
A deliberate change of key after Dance with Me — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Ice Age (2002)
Keeps the comedy register of Go but asks for a colder reading of it.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend (2020)
Keeps the comedy register of Ice Age but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Adrian Lyne
Director
1 film together
Notably Fatal Attraction
Randa Haines
Director
1 film together
Notably Dance with Me
Doug Liman
Director
1 film together
Notably Go
Brian Levant
Director
1 film together
Notably The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas
Chris Wedge
Director
1 film together
Notably Ice Age
Charles Shyer
Director
1 film together
Notably Alfie
Roger Allers
Director
1 film together
Notably Open Season
Matthew O'Callaghan
Director
1 film together
Notably Open Season 2
Paul Weitz
Director
1 film together
Notably Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
Ross Katz
Director
1 film together
Notably Adult Beginners
Chris Columbus
Director
1 film together
Notably Pixels
Claire Scanlon
Director
1 film together
Notably Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend
Oz Rodríguez
Director
1 film together
Notably 30 Rock: A One-Time Special
José Luis Ucha
Director
1 film together
Notably My Little Pony: A New Generation
Jim O'Hanlon
Director
1 film together
Notably Your Christmas or Mine 2
Adam Shankman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Man with the Bag
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
José Luis Ucha
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
My Little Pony: A New GenerationChris Wedge
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ice AgeDoug Liman
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GoAdrian Lyne
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fatal AttractionRanda Haines
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dance with MeClaire Scanlon
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the ReverendOz Rodríguez
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
30 Rock: A One-Time SpecialJim O'Hanlon
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Your Christmas or Mine 2Roger Allers
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Open SeasonPaul Weitz
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's AssistantMatthew O'Callaghan
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Open Season 2Charles Shyer
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AlfieChris Columbus
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PixelsRoss Katz
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Adult BeginnersBrian Levant
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 Flintstones in Viva Rock VegasAdam Shankman
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Man with the BagSix 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
My Little Pony: A New Generation
as Queen Haven (voice)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Fatal Attraction
as Christine
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Ice Age
as Female Sloth (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Go
as Irene
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
My Little Pony: A New Generation
as Queen Haven (voice)
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. Jane Krakowski 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
39 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
14 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
My Little Pony: A New Generation
as Queen Haven (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Go
as Irene
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Dance with Me
as Patricia Black
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Go
as Irene
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Ice Age
as Female Sloth (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
as Corma Limbs
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
My Little Pony: A New Generation
as Queen Haven (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Ice Age
as Female Sloth (voice)
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 Jane Krakowski 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
