Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#638
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Martin Starr represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 33 years in, and Martin is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Martin Starr appears in 26 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Martin. Spider-Man: No Way Home 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 horror, thriller, action. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Logic, Magnus Martens, Albert Calleros and others, Martin Starr 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.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) as Mr. Harrington · Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) as Mr. Harrington · Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) as Mr. Harrington
Career snapshot
Ranked #638 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
26
1992–2025
Career length
33 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.3
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.9
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Most frequent director
Jon Watts
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Jon Watts
Most common genre
Comedy
16 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
6.9
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
2010s
6.5 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Spider-Man: Far From Home, Frances Ferguson, Honey Boy — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.5
Across 9 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
1990s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Hero.
Most productive era
2010s
9 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 | 6.31 film | 6.32 films | 6.34 films | — |
| Action | — | 6.51 film | 7.23 films | 6.63 films |
| Thriller | — | — | — | 5.71 film |
| Comedy | 6.31 film | 6.46 films | 6.16 films | 5.93 films |
| Crime | — | — | 6.61 film | 6.71 film |
| Romance | — | 6.33 films | 5.72 films | — |
| Horror | — | — | — | 5.92 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1992Hero
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Allen in Coma.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
8.3 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
2025Paradise Records
The current state of the argument, as Mike Hawk.
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.
26 of 26 films
as Mr. Harrington
Directed by Jon Watts
as Mr. Harrington
Directed by Jon Watts
Directed by Unknown
as Mr. Harrington
Directed by Jon Watts
as James Masselin
Directed by Greg Mottola
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
Mr. Harrington
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Performance score8.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Mr. Harrington gives Martin Starr a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Mr. Harrington
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Performance score7.5
Spider-Man: Far From Home asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mr. Harrington is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
The War of the Worlds 2021
The War of the Worlds 2021 (2021)
Performance score7.4
The War of the Worlds 2021 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. The role is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Mr. Harrington
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Performance score7.4
Spider-Man: Homecoming asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mr. Harrington 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 Mr. Harrington
Start here. Spider-Man: No Way Home is the clearest statement of what Martin Starr does — accessible, 148 minutes, and rated 8.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Martin 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.
Superbad (2007)
A deliberate change of key after Spider-Man: No Way Home — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
A deliberate change of key after Superbad — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Same director as Spider-Man: Homecoming, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
The War of the Worlds 2021 (2021)
Keeps the science fiction register of Spider-Man: Far From Home but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Jon Watts
Director
3 films together
Notably Spider-Man: No Way Home
Greg Mottola
Director
2 films together
Notably Superbad
Stephen Frears
Director
1 film together
Notably Hero
Jake Kasdan
Director
1 film together
Notably Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Judd Apatow
Director
1 film together
Notably Knocked Up
Louis Leterrier
Director
1 film together
Notably The Incredible Hulk
Ricky Gervais
Director
1 film together
Notably The Invention of Lying
Liz W. Garcia
Director
1 film together
Notably The Lifeguard
Evan Goldberg
Director
1 film together
Notably This Is the End
Rob Thomas
Director
1 film together
Notably Veronica Mars
Brett Haley
Director
1 film together
Notably I'll See You in My Dreams
Alma Har'el
Director
1 film together
Notably Honey Boy
Nathan Barnatt
Director
1 film together
Notably Milford
Albert Calleros
Director
1 film together
Notably Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe
Magnus Martens
Director
1 film together
Notably There's Something in the Barn
Logic
Director
1 film together
Notably Paradise Records
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Jon Watts
Director
3 films together · 7.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Spider-Man: No Way HomeGreg Mottola
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
SuperbadAlma Har'el
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Honey BoyAlbert Calleros
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Beavis and Butt-Head Do the UniverseRob Thomas
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Veronica MarsJake 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 StoryLouis Leterrier
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Incredible HulkBrett Haley
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
I'll See You in My DreamsJudd 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 UpStephen Frears
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HeroEvan Goldberg
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
This Is the EndRicky Gervais
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 Invention of LyingMagnus Martens
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
There's Something in the BarnLiz W. Garcia
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 LifeguardLogic
Director
1 film together · 4.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Paradise RecordsNathan Barnatt
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MilfordSix 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
Spider-Man: No Way Home
as Mr. Harrington
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Knocked Up
as Martin
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Spider-Man: No Way Home
as Mr. Harrington
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Hero
as Allen in Coma
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Spider-Man: No Way Home
as Mr. Harrington
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. Martin Starr 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
33 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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
16 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
Spider-Man: No Way Home
as Mr. Harrington
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Spider-Man: No Way Home
as Mr. Harrington
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Knocked Up
as Martin
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Veronica Mars
as Stu 'Cobb' Cobbler
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Spider-Man: No Way Home
as Mr. Harrington
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Spider-Man: No Way Home
as Mr. Harrington
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Veronica Mars
as Stu 'Cobb' Cobbler
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Spider-Man: No Way Home
as Mr. Harrington
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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