Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#57
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Kristen Wiig 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.
Kristen Wiig appears in 45 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Kristen. Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love is the clearest case: a film rated 8.3 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 documentary, action, science fiction. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Morgan Neville, Travis Knight, Sia and others, Kristen Wiig 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.
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love (2023) as Self - Guest · How to Train Your Dragon (2010) as Ruffnut (voice) · Her (2013) as SexyKitten (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #57 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
45
2007–2026
Career length
19 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.3
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.3
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love
Most frequent director
Chris Renaud
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Chris Renaud
Most common genre
Comedy
31 titles
Average runtime
1h 41m
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
6.4
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. Downsizing, Despicable Me 3, mother! — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.6
Across 24 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.5
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2000s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Whip It, Extract.
Most productive era
2010s
24 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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.45 films | 6.78 films | — |
| Action | — | 6.06 films | 7.03 films |
| Thriller | — | 6.11 film | — |
| Comedy | 6.19 films | 6.317 films | 7.15 films |
| Crime | — | 6.72 films | — |
| Romance | 6.34 films | 6.74 films | 7.11 film |
| Horror | — | 7.01 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2007Knocked Up
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Jill.
Career peak
2015The Martian
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Highest rated performance
2023Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love
8.3 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Most recent film
2026Sia: Nostalgic for the Present
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.
45 of 45 films
as Annie Montrose
Directed by Ridley Scott
as Self - Guest
Directed by Paul Miller
as SexyKitten (voice)
Directed by Spike Jonze
as Ruffnut (voice)
Directed by Dean DeBlois
as Cheryl Melhoff
Directed by Ben Stiller
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
Annie Montrose
The Martian (2015)
Performance score8.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Annie Montrose gives Kristen Wiig a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Self - Guest
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love (2023)
Performance score8.0
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self - Guest is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
SexyKitten (voice)
Her (2013)
Performance score7.8
Her asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. SexyKitten (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Ruffnut (voice)
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Performance score7.8
How to Train Your Dragon asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ruffnut (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 Annie Montrose
Start here. The Martian is the clearest statement of what Kristen Wiig does — accessible, 141 minutes, and rated 7.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Kristen 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.
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Keeps the adventure register of The Martian but asks for a colder reading of it.
Her (2013)
A deliberate change of key after How to Train Your Dragon — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)
Keeps the drama register of Her but asks for a colder reading of it.
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love (2023)
Keeps the comedy register of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Chris Renaud
Director
3 films together
Notably Despicable Me
Greg Mottola
Director
2 films together
Notably Paul
Dean DeBlois
Director
2 films together
Notably How to Train Your Dragon
Paul Feig
Director
2 films together
Notably Bridesmaids
Ben Stiller
Director
2 films together
Notably The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Josh Greenbaum
Director
2 films together
Notably Will & Harper
Bob Odenkirk
Director
1 film together
Notably The Brothers Solomon
Melisa Wallack
Director
1 film together
Notably Meet Bill
Jake Kasdan
Director
1 film together
Notably Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Judd Apatow
Director
1 film together
Notably Knocked Up
Nicholas Stoller
Director
1 film together
Notably Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Mike Judge
Director
1 film together
Notably Extract
Drew Barrymore
Director
1 film together
Notably Whip It
Carlos Saldanha
Director
1 film together
Notably Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Andrew Jarecki
Director
1 film together
Notably All Good Things
Shawn Levy
Director
1 film together
Notably Date Night
Tom Owens
Director
1 film together
Notably Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury
Jennifer Westfeldt
Director
1 film together
Notably Friends with Kids
Adam McKay
Director
1 film together
Notably Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Spike Jonze
Director
1 film together
Notably Her
Liza Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably Hateship Loveship
Shira Piven
Director
1 film together
Notably Welcome to Me
Ridley Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably The Martian
Jared Hess
Director
1 film together
Notably Masterminds
Conrad Vernon
Director
1 film together
Notably Sausage Party
Darren Aronofsky
Director
1 film together
Notably mother!
Kyle Balda
Director
1 film together
Notably Despicable Me 3
Alexander Payne
Director
1 film together
Notably Downsizing
Patty Jenkins
Director
1 film together
Notably Wonder Woman 1984
Paul Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love
Sia
Director
1 film together
Notably Sia: Nostalgic for the Present
Travis Knight
Director
1 film together
Notably Masters of the Universe
Morgan Neville
Director
1 film together
Notably Lorne
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Chris Renaud
Director
3 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Despicable MeDean DeBlois
Director
2 films together · 7.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
How to Train Your DragonJosh Greenbaum
Director
2 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Will & HarperGreg Mottola
Director
2 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
PaulBen Stiller
Director
2 films together · 6.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Secret Life of Walter MittyPaul Feig
Director
2 films together · 5.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
BridesmaidsPaul Miller
Director
1 film together · 8.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + LoveSpike Jonze
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HerRidley Scott
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The MartianTravis Knight
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Masters of the UniverseTom Owens
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dragons: Gift of the Night FuryDarren Aronofsky
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
mother!Carlos Saldanha
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ice Age: Dawn of the DinosaursMorgan Neville
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LorneDrew Barrymore
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Whip ItJake Kasdan
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox StoryKyle Balda
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Despicable Me 3Nicholas Stoller
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Forgetting Sarah MarshallPatty Jenkins
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wonder Woman 1984Judd Apatow
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Knocked UpAdam McKay
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Anchorman 2: The Legend ContinuesShawn Levy
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Date NightAndrew Jarecki
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 Good ThingsMelisa Wallack
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Meet BillJennifer Westfeldt
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Friends with KidsShira Piven
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Welcome to MeMike Judge
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ExtractConrad Vernon
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sausage PartyJared Hess
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MastermindsLiza Johnson
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hateship LoveshipAlexander Payne
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DownsizingBob Odenkirk
Director
1 film together · 5.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Brothers SolomonSia
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sia: Nostalgic for the PresentSix 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
Her
as SexyKitten (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
How to Train Your Dragon
as Ruffnut (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
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love
as Self - Guest
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love
as Self - Guest
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Martian
as Annie Montrose
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. Kristen Wiig 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
31 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
How to Train Your Dragon
as Ruffnut (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
How to Train Your Dragon 2
as Ruffnut (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
How to Train Your Dragon
as Ruffnut (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
All Good Things
as Lauren Fleck
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
How to Train Your Dragon 2
as Ruffnut (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
How to Train Your Dragon 2
as Ruffnut (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
as Cheryl Melhoff
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Despicable Me
as Miss Hattie (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Harry Dean Stanton
Works with the same directors — Ridley Scott
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Have your say
Community
Which Kristen Wiig performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
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Reference
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