Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#14
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
John Leguizamo represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 38 years in, and John is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
John Leguizamo appears in 67 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without John. The Odyssey is the clearest case: a film rated 8.9 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 horror, comedy, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Daniel Kwan, Mike Flanagan, John Donkin and others, John Leguizamo 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 Odyssey (2026) as Eumaeus · The Odyssey (2026) as Eumaeus · Zootopia 2 (2025) as Antony Snootley (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #14 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
67
1989–2027
Career length
38 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.9
The Odyssey
Average Nutevio score
6.0
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.4
The Odyssey
Most frequent director
Christopher Nolan
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Christopher Nolan
Most common genre
Drama
28 titles
Average runtime
1h 43m
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
6.7
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
1980s
7.0 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Casualties of War — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.0
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.2
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. Casualties of War.
Most productive era
2010s
20 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 | 7.01 film | 6.79 films | 6.56 films | 6.46 films | 6.76 films |
| Action | — | 6.25 films | 6.14 films | 6.57 films | 6.74 films |
| Thriller | — | 6.58 films | 5.96 films | 6.67 films | 5.52 films |
| Comedy | — | 6.03 films | 6.75 films | 6.47 films | 6.26 films |
| Crime | — | 6.83 films | 6.23 films | 6.47 films | 5.32 films |
| Romance | — | 6.63 films | 6.53 films | 6.91 film | — |
| Horror | — | 5.51 film | 6.31 film | — | 3.62 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Private Antonio Diaz.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2026The Odyssey
8.9 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, as Sid (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.
67 of 67 films
as Eumaeus
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Bruno Madrigal (voice)
Directed by Byron Howard
as Sid (voice)
Directed by Chris Wedge
as Eumaeus
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Toulouse-Lautrec
Directed by Baz Luhrmann
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 81 titles · 92 total credits · active 1984–2027
Untitled Daniels Event Film
2027 · Actor
The Exorcist: Martyrs
2027 · Actor
Ice Age: Boiling Point
2027 · Sid (voice) · Executive Producer
The Odyssey
2026 · Eumaeus
Dear Killer Nannies
2026 · TV · Pablo Escobar Gaviria · Executive Producer
Zootopia 2
2025 · Antony Snootley (voice)
Tin Soldier
2025 · Luke · Executive Producer
Bob Trevino Likes It
2025 · Bob Trevino
This Ordinary Thing
2025 · Self (voice)
A Grammy Celebration of Latin Music
2025 · Self
Smoke
2025 · TV · Esposito
The Green Veil
2024 · TV · Gordon Rogers · Executive Producer
VOCES American Historia: The Untold History of Latinos
2024 · TV · Self · Creator · Executive Producer
Leguizamo Does America
2023 · TV · Self · Executive Producer
The Power
2023 · TV · Rob Lopez
Waco: The Aftermath
2023 · TV · Jacob Vazquez
Inside with Jen Psaki
2023 · TV · Self
The Menu
2022 · Movie Star
Violent Night
2022 · Scrooge
The Survivor
2022 · Bill "Pepe" Miller
Encanto
2021 · Bruno Madrigal (voice)
Dark Blood
2021 · Misael
The Night Clerk
2020 · Detective Espada
Critical Thinking
2020 · Mario Martinez · Director · Executive Producer
The defining work
#1
Eumaeus
The Odyssey (2026)
Performance score8.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Eumaeus gives John Leguizamo a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Bruno Madrigal (voice)
Encanto (2021)
Performance score7.9
Encanto asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bruno Madrigal (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Sid (voice)
Ice Age (2002)
Performance score7.9
Ice Age asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sid (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Eumaeus
The Odyssey (2026)
Performance score7.8
The Odyssey asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Eumaeus 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 Eumaeus
Start here. The Odyssey is the clearest statement of what John Leguizamo does — accessible, 165 minutes, and rated 8.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet John 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.
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Keeps the drama register of The Odyssey but asks for a colder reading of it.
Ice Age (2002)
A deliberate change of key after Moulin Rouge! — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Encanto (2021)
Keeps the comedy register of Ice Age but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Odyssey (2026)
Keeps the fantasy register of Encanto but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Brian De Palma
Director
2 films together
Notably Carlito's Way
Tony Scott
Director
2 films together
Notably Revenge
Baz Luhrmann
Director
2 films together
Notably Moulin Rouge!
Spike Lee
Director
2 films together
Notably Summer of Sam
Carlos Saldanha
Director
2 films together
Notably Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Chad Stahelski
Director
2 films together
Notably John Wick
Byron Howard
Director
2 films together
Notably Zootopia 2
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together
Notably The Odyssey
Renny Harlin
Director
1 film together
Notably Die Hard 2
Mike Nichols
Director
1 film together
Notably Regarding Henry
John Flynn
Director
1 film together
Notably Out for Justice
Stuart Baird
Director
1 film together
Notably Executive Decision
Betty Thomas
Director
1 film together
Notably Doctor Dolittle
Gary Goldman
Director
1 film together
Notably Titan A.E.
Andrew Davis
Director
1 film together
Notably Collateral Damage
Chris Wedge
Director
1 film together
Notably Ice Age
Jonas Åkerlund
Director
1 film together
Notably Spun
George A. Romero
Director
1 film together
Notably Land of the Dead
Mike Newell
Director
1 film together
Notably Love in the Time of Cholera
Jon Avnet
Director
1 film together
Notably Righteous Kill
M. Night Shyamalan
Director
1 film together
Notably The Happening
Brian Taylor
Director
1 film together
Notably Gamer
Miguel Sapochnik
Director
1 film together
Notably Repo Men
Barry Cook
Director
1 film together
Notably Walking with Dinosaurs
Ridley Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably The Counselor
Jeff Wadlow
Director
1 film together
Notably Kick-Ass 2
Tim Story
Director
1 film together
Notably Ride Along
Jon Favreau
Director
1 film together
Notably Chef
Michael Almereyda
Director
1 film together
Notably Experimenter
Jason Moore
Director
1 film together
Notably Sisters
Nima Nourizadeh
Director
1 film together
Notably American Ultra
Ry Russo-Young
Director
1 film together
Notably The Sun Is Also a Star
Andy Fickman
Director
1 film together
Notably Playing with Fire
John Leguizamo
Director
1 film together
Notably Critical Thinking
Michael Cristofer
Director
1 film together
Notably The Night Clerk
Barry Levinson
Director
1 film together
Notably The Survivor
Mark Mylod
Director
1 film together
Notably The Menu
John Donkin
Director
1 film together
Notably Ice Age: Boiling Point
Mike Flanagan
Director
1 film together
Notably The Exorcist: Martyrs
Daniel Kwan
Director
1 film together
Notably Untitled Daniels Event Film
Anne Hathaway
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Matt Damon
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Elliot Page
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Jamie Harris
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Tom Holland
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Robert Pattinson
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Himesh Patel
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Charlize Theron
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Travis Scott
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Corey Hawkins
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Jarreth J. Merz
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Niko Nicotera
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Odyssey
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together · 8.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The OdysseyByron Howard
Director
2 films together · 7.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Zootopia 2Chad Stahelski
Director
2 films together · 7.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
John WickBrian De Palma
Director
2 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Carlito's WayBaz Luhrmann
Director
2 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Moulin Rouge!Carlos Saldanha
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
Ice Age: Dawn of the DinosaursSpike Lee
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Summer of SamTony Scott
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
RevengeChris 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 AgeMark Mylod
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The MenuJon Favreau
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ChefRenny Harlin
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Die Hard 2Ry Russo-Young
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Sun Is Also a StarBarry Levinson
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 SurvivorMike Newell
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Love in the Time of CholeraAndy Fickman
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Playing with FireJonas Åkerlund
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SpunGary Goldman
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Titan A.E.John Leguizamo
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Critical ThinkingMichael Almereyda
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ExperimenterMike Nichols
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Regarding HenryJeff Wadlow
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kick-Ass 2Stuart Baird
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Executive DecisionTim Story
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ride AlongMiguel Sapochnik
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Repo MenGeorge A. Romero
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Land of the DeadMichael Cristofer
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Night ClerkBarry Cook
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Walking with DinosaursJohn Flynn
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Out for JusticeNima Nourizadeh
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
American UltraJason Moore
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SistersBetty Thomas
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Doctor DolittleJon Avnet
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Righteous KillAndrew Davis
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Collateral DamageBrian Taylor
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GamerM. Night Shyamalan
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The HappeningRidley Scott
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The CounselorDaniel Kwan
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Mike Flanagan
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 Exorcist: MartyrsJohn Donkin
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ice Age: Boiling PointSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
4 wins · 3 nominations
1 win
as Actor
1 win
as Actor
1 win · latest 1993
as Actor
1 win · latest 1995
as Actor
No wins yet · 1 nomination
as Actor
No wins yet · 2 nominations
as Actor
as Actor
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
The Odyssey
as Eumaeus
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 Odyssey
as Eumaeus
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 Odyssey
as Eumaeus
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Dr. Dolittle 2
as Rat #2 (voice, uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Odyssey
as Eumaeus
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. John Leguizamo has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 7.9 | 8.9 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #559 of 681 | #2 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 4 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 2 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 6 |
| Average Nutevio score | 8.9 | 9.3 |
| Genres | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy | Sci-Fi, Adventure, Drama, Thriller |
| Directors | Christopher Nolan | Christopher Nolan |
| Performance DNA | Emotional range, Drama, Screen presence | Transformation, Screen presence, Rewatchability |
| Career timeline | 2026–2026 | 2006–2014 |
| Most iconic role | Eumaeus — The Odyssey | Professor Brand — Interstellar |
| Most rewatchable film | The Odyssey | The Dark Knight |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Christopher Nolan
Shared collections
Adventure Movies, Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked, Drama Movies
Collaborators in common
Christopher Nolan · Anne Hathaway · Matt Damon
Michael Caine edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
38 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.
Drama Legend
Awarded
28 catalogue titles in drama, 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 Odyssey
as Eumaeus
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Carlito's Way
as Benny Blanco
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Odyssey
as Eumaeus
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Righteous Kill
as Det. Simon Perez
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Odyssey
as Eumaeus
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Odyssey
as Eumaeus
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Spun
as Spider Mike
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Odyssey
as Eumaeus
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 4 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
From the magazine
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Matt Damon
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
David Krumholtz
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Cillian Murphy
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Morgan Freeman
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Robert Downey Jr.
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Have your say
Community
Which John Leguizamo 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
