Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#6628
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Jermaine Fowler 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.
Jermaine Fowler appears in 19 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Jermaine. Judas and the Black Messiah is the clearest case: a film rated 7.3 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, comedy, crime. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Boots Riley, Shawn Simmons, Peter Farrelly and others, Jermaine Fowler 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.
Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) as Mark Clark (uncredited) · Sorry to Bother You (2018) as Salvador · Buffaloed (2020) as Graham
Career snapshot
Ranked #6628 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
19
2018–2026
Career length
8 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.3
Judas and the Black Messiah
Average Nutevio score
5.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.3
Judas and the Black Messiah
Most frequent director
Boots Riley
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Boots Riley
Most common genre
Comedy
14 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
6.1
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. Sorry to Bother You — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.8
Across 1 catalogue film 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. Sorry to Bother You.
Most productive era
2020s
18 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 | — | 6.74 films |
| Action | — | 5.72 films |
| Thriller | — | 5.83 films |
| Comedy | 6.81 film | 5.813 films |
| Crime | — | 6.22 films |
| Romance | — | 6.41 film |
| Horror | — | 5.74 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Career peak
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Salvador. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Highest rated performance
2021Judas and the Black Messiah
7.3 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Most recent film
2026Night Patrol
The current state of the argument, as Xavier Carr.
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.
19 of 19 films
as Mark Clark (uncredited)
Directed by Shaka King
as Salvador
Directed by Boots Riley
as Danny
Directed by Stephanie Allynne
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
Mark Clark (uncredited)
Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)
Performance score7.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Mark Clark (uncredited) gives Jermaine Fowler a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Salvador
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
Performance score7.2
Sorry to Bother You asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Salvador is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Brick
Late Bloomers (2024)
Performance score7.0
Late Bloomers asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Brick is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Graham
Buffaloed (2020)
Performance score7.0
Buffaloed asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Graham 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 Mark Clark (uncredited)
Start here. Judas and the Black Messiah is the clearest statement of what Jermaine Fowler does — accessible, 125 minutes, and rated 7.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Jermaine 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.
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
A deliberate change of key after Judas and the Black Messiah — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Buffaloed (2020)
Keeps the comedy register of Sorry to Bother You but asks for a colder reading of it.
Late Bloomers (2024)
Same director as Buffaloed, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Am I OK? (2024)
Keeps the comedy register of Late Bloomers but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Boots Riley
Director
2 films together
Notably Sorry to Bother You
Steve Byrne
Director
1 film together
Notably The Opening Act
Shaka King
Director
1 film together
Notably Judas and the Black Messiah
Craig Brewer
Director
1 film together
Notably Coming 2 America
Sarah Adina Smith
Director
1 film together
Notably The Drop
Megalyn Echikunwoke
Director
1 film together
Notably Weathering
Chelsea Peretti
Director
1 film together
Notably First Time Female Director
Tim Story
Director
1 film together
Notably The Blackening
Wade Allain-Marcus
Director
1 film together
Notably Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead
Stephanie Allynne
Director
1 film together
Notably Am I OK?
Peter Farrelly
Director
1 film together
Notably Ricky Stanicky
Shawn Simmons
Director
1 film together
Notably Eenie Meanie
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Boots Riley
Director
2 films together · 6.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Sorry to Bother YouShaka King
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Judas and the Black MessiahPeter Farrelly
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ricky StanickyStephanie Allynne
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Am I OK?Shawn Simmons
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Eenie MeanieCraig Brewer
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Coming 2 AmericaTim Story
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 BlackeningWade Allain-Marcus
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's DeadSteve Byrne
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Opening ActMegalyn Echikunwoke
Director
1 film together · 4.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
WeatheringSarah Adina Smith
Director
1 film together · 4.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The DropChelsea Peretti
Director
1 film together · 3.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
First Time Female DirectorSix 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
Judas and the Black Messiah
as Mark Clark (uncredited)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Judas and the Black Messiah
as Mark Clark (uncredited)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Judas and the Black Messiah
as Mark Clark (uncredited)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Judas and the Black Messiah
as Mark Clark (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Judas and the Black Messiah
as Mark Clark (uncredited)
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. Jermaine Fowler 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
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
Judas and the Black Messiah
as Mark Clark (uncredited)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Eenie Meanie
as The Chaperone
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Riverdance: The Animated Adventure
as Benny (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Night Patrol
as Xavier Carr
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Judas and the Black Messiah
as Mark Clark (uncredited)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Eenie Meanie
as The Chaperone
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Riverdance: The Animated Adventure
as Benny (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Am I OK?
as Danny
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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