Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1475
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Josh Hamilton represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 32 years in, and Josh is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Josh Hamilton appears in 23 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Josh. Manchester by the Sea 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 science fiction, horror, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Francis Lawrence, Noah Baumbach, Bradley Cooper and others, Josh Hamilton 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.
Manchester by the Sea (2016) as Wes (Joe's Lawyer) · Ice Age (2002) as Dodo / Aardvark (voice) · The Bourne Identity (2002) as Research Tech
Career snapshot
Ranked #1475 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
23
1993–2025
Career length
32 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.6
Manchester by the Sea
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.5
Manchester by the Sea
Most frequent director
Noah Baumbach
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Noah Baumbach
Most common genre
Drama
16 titles
Average runtime
1h 50m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.9
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
2000s
7.3 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Away We Go, Ice Age, The Bourne Identity — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.3
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
7.2
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. With Honors, Alive.
Most productive era
2020s
11 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 | 6.82 films | 6.71 film | 6.76 films | 6.37 films |
| Action | — | 7.51 film | — | — |
| Thriller | — | 7.51 film | 6.41 film | 6.33 films |
| Comedy | 6.71 film | 7.22 films | 6.82 films | 6.12 films |
| Crime | — | — | 6.21 film | 6.81 film |
| Romance | — | 6.71 film | — | 6.72 films |
| Horror | — | — | 6.41 film | 6.32 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1993Alive
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Roberto Canessa.
Highest rated performance
2002Ice Age
7.6 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2018Eighth Grade
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2025Jay Kelly
The current state of the argument, as Carter.
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.
23 of 23 films
as Mark Day
Directed by Bo Burnham
as Roberto Canessa
Directed by Frank Marshall
as Dodo / Aardvark (voice)
Directed by Chris Wedge
as Research Tech
Directed by Doug Liman
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
Mark Day
Eighth Grade (2018)
Performance score7.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Mark Day gives Josh Hamilton a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Roberto Canessa
Alive (1993)
Performance score7.5
Alive asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Roberto Canessa is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Wes (Joe's Lawyer)
Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Performance score7.4
Manchester by the Sea asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Wes (Joe's Lawyer) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Dodo / Aardvark (voice)
Ice Age (2002)
Performance score7.4
Ice Age asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dodo / Aardvark (voice) 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 Day
Start here. Eighth Grade is the clearest statement of what Josh Hamilton does — accessible, 94 minutes, and rated 7.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Josh 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.
Alive (1993)
Keeps the drama register of Eighth Grade but asks for a colder reading of it.
Ice Age (2002)
Keeps the adventure register of Alive but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Bourne Identity (2002)
A deliberate change of key after Ice Age — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Manchester by the Sea (2016)
A deliberate change of key after The Bourne Identity — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Kenneth Lonergan
Director
2 films together
Notably Manchester by the Sea
Michael Almereyda
Director
2 films together
Notably Experimenter
Noah Baumbach
Director
2 films together
Notably The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
Frank Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably Alive
Alek Keshishian
Director
1 film together
Notably With Honors
Doug Liman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Bourne Identity
Chris Wedge
Director
1 film together
Notably Ice Age
Sam Mendes
Director
1 film together
Notably Away We Go
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together
Notably J. Edgar
Scott Stewart
Director
1 film together
Notably Dark Skies
Bo Burnham
Director
1 film together
Notably Eighth Grade
John Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably False Positive
David Hollander
Director
1 film together
Notably Ray Donovan: The Movie
Cory Finley
Director
1 film together
Notably Landscape with Invisible Hand
Bradley Cooper
Director
1 film together
Notably Maestro
Francis Lawrence
Director
1 film together
Notably The Long Walk
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Kenneth Lonergan
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
Manchester by the SeaNoah Baumbach
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
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)Michael Almereyda
Director
2 films together · 6.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
ExperimenterChris 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 · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Bourne IdentityBo Burnham
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Eighth GradeFrancis Lawrence
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 Long WalkFrank Marshall
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AliveDavid Hollander
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ray Donovan: The MovieSam Mendes
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Away We GoAlek Keshishian
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
With HonorsScott Stewart
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dark SkiesBradley Cooper
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MaestroClint Eastwood
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
J. EdgarCory Finley
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Landscape with Invisible HandJohn Lee
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
False PositiveSix 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
Manchester by the Sea
as Wes (Joe's Lawyer)
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 Map of Tiny Perfect Things
as Daniel
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 Dodo / Aardvark (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Maestro
as John Gruen
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Eighth Grade
as Mark Day
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. Josh Hamilton 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
32 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
16 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 Bourne Identity
as Research Tech
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Bourne Identity
as Research Tech
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Maestro
as John Gruen
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
False Positive
as Greg
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Bourne Identity
as Research Tech
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Bourne Identity
as Research Tech
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Away We Go
as Roderick
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Ice Age
as Dodo / Aardvark (voice)
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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