Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#6160
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Madeleine McGraw 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.
Madeleine McGraw appears in 12 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Madeleine. The Mitchells vs. the Machines 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 action, comedy, horror. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Scott Derrickson, Mike Rianda, Josh Cooley and others, Madeleine McGraw 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 Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021) as Young Katie (voice) · Toy Story 4 (2019) as Bonnie (voice) · The Black Phone (2022) as Gwen Blake
Career snapshot
Ranked #6160 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
12
2014–2026
Career length
12 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.7
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.8
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Most frequent director
Scott Derrickson
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Scott Derrickson
Most common genre
Action
4 titles
Average runtime
1h 47m
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
6.2
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
7.0 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Toy Story 4, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Pacific Rim: Uprising — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
7.0
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
7.0
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. Toy Story 4, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Pacific Rim: Uprising.
Most productive era
2020s
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 | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.01 film | 5.72 films |
| Action | 6.83 films | 0.01 film |
| Thriller | — | 6.14 films |
| Comedy | 7.71 film | 3.92 films |
| Horror | — | 6.14 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2014American Sniper
Where our catalogue meets this career, as McKenna.
Highest rated performance
2019Toy Story 4
7.7 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2022The Black Phone
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2026Double Trouble
The current state of the argument, as Charlotte.
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.
12 of 12 films
as Gwen Blake
Directed by Scott Derrickson
as Bonnie (voice)
Directed by Josh Cooley
as Young Katie (voice)
Directed by Mike Rianda
as Emma
Directed by Unknown
as McKenna
Directed by Clint Eastwood
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
Gwen Blake
The Black Phone (2022)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Gwen Blake gives Madeleine McGraw a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Bonnie (voice)
Toy Story 4 (2019)
Performance score7.7
Toy Story 4 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bonnie (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Young Katie (voice)
The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021)
Performance score7.5
The Mitchells vs. the Machines asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Young Katie (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Emma
Captain Tsunami (2025)
Performance score7.3
Captain Tsunami asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Emma 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 Gwen Blake
Start here. The Black Phone is the clearest statement of what Madeleine McGraw does — accessible, 103 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Madeleine 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.
American Sniper (2014)
A deliberate change of key after The Black Phone — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Toy Story 4 (2019)
A deliberate change of key after American Sniper — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021)
Keeps the comedy register of Toy Story 4 but asks for a colder reading of it.
Captain Tsunami (2025)
A deliberate change of key after The Mitchells vs. the Machines — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Scott Derrickson
Director
2 films together
Notably The Black Phone
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together
Notably American Sniper
Brian Fee
Director
1 film together
Notably Cars 3
Steven S. DeKnight
Director
1 film together
Notably Pacific Rim: Uprising
Peyton Reed
Director
1 film together
Notably Ant-Man and the Wasp
Josh Cooley
Director
1 film together
Notably Toy Story 4
Mike Rianda
Director
1 film together
Notably The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Scott Derrickson
Director
2 films together · 7.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Black PhoneMike Rianda
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Mitchells vs. the MachinesJosh Cooley
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Toy Story 4Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
American SniperBrian Fee
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cars 3Peyton Reed
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ant-Man and the WaspSteven S. DeKnight
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Pacific Rim: UprisingSix 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
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
as Young Katie (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
Cars 3
as Maddy McGear (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
Toy Story 4
as Bonnie (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
American Sniper
as McKenna
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Black Phone
as Gwen Blake
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. Madeleine McGraw 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.
Action Legend
Awarded
4 catalogue titles in action, 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
Captain Tsunami
as Emma
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Black Phone
as Gwen Blake
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Cars 3
as Maddy McGear (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Captain Tsunami
as Emma
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Ant-Man and the Wasp
as Young Hope
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Ant-Man and the Wasp
as Young Hope
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Cars 3
as Maddy McGear (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Toy Story 4
as Bonnie (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Jamie Harris
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Matt Damon
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Elliot Page
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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