Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2082
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Mary-Louise Parker represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 32 years in, and Mary-Louise is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Mary-Louise Parker appears in 20 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Mary-Louise. Young Washington is the clearest case: a film rated 7.1 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, mystery, science fiction. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Katie Holmes, Jon Erwin, Jonathan A. Rosenbaum and others, Mary-Louise Parker 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.
Young Washington (2026) as Mary Washington · The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) as Zee James · Red Dragon (2002) as Molly Graham
Career snapshot
Ranked #2082 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
20
1995–2027
Career length
32 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.1
Young Washington
Average Nutevio score
5.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.2
Young Washington
Most frequent director
Robert Schwentke
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Robert Schwentke
Most common genre
Comedy
9 titles
Average runtime
1h 49m
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
6.4
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
2000s
6.7 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Romance & Cigarettes — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.7
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.6
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. The Portrait of a Lady, Boys on the Side.
Most productive era
2010s
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 | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.32 films | 6.92 films | 6.41 film | 4.43 films |
| Action | — | — | 6.63 films | 0.01 film |
| Thriller | — | 7.11 film | 6.83 films | 0.01 film |
| Comedy | 6.41 film | 6.32 films | 6.34 films | 3.32 films |
| Crime | — | 7.11 film | 6.82 films | — |
| Romance | 6.21 film | 6.21 film | — | 0.01 film |
| Horror | — | 7.11 film | — | 0.01 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1995Boys on the Side
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Robin.
Highest rated performance
2002Red Dragon
7.1 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2026Young Washington
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2027The Auction
The current state of the argument, as Paula Kletter.
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.
20 of 20 films
as Mary Washington
Directed by Jon Erwin
as Sarah Ross
Directed by Dean Parisot
as Sarah Ross
Directed by Robert Schwentke
as Helen Grace
Directed by Mark Waters
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
Mary Washington
Young Washington (2026)
Performance score7.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Mary Washington gives Mary-Louise Parker a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Sarah Ross
RED 2 (2013)
Performance score7.1
RED 2 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sarah Ross is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Sarah Ross
RED (2010)
Performance score7.1
RED asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sarah Ross is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Helen Grace
The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)
Performance score7.0
The Spiderwick Chronicles asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Helen Grace 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 Mary Washington
Start here. Young Washington is the clearest statement of what Mary-Louise Parker does — accessible, 122 minutes, and rated 7.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Mary-Louise 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.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
Keeps the drama register of Young Washington but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)
Keeps the drama register of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford but asks for a colder reading of it.
RED (2010)
Keeps the adventure register of The Spiderwick Chronicles but asks for a colder reading of it.
RED 2 (2013)
Keeps the action register of RED but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Robert Schwentke
Director
2 films together
Notably RED
Herbert Ross
Director
1 film together
Notably Boys on the Side
Jane Campion
Director
1 film together
Notably The Portrait of a Lady
Brett Ratner
Director
1 film together
Notably Red Dragon
Brian Dannelly
Director
1 film together
Notably Saved!
John Turturro
Director
1 film together
Notably Romance & Cigarettes
Andrew Dominik
Director
1 film together
Notably The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Mark Waters
Director
1 film together
Notably The Spiderwick Chronicles
Dean Parisot
Director
1 film together
Notably RED 2
Francis Lawrence
Director
1 film together
Notably Red Sparrow
Jonathan A. Rosenbaum
Director
1 film together
Notably Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp
Jon Erwin
Director
1 film together
Notably Young Washington
Katie Holmes
Director
1 film together
Notably Happy Hours, Part 1
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Robert Schwentke
Director
2 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
REDJon Erwin
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Young WashingtonAndrew Dominik
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert FordBrett Ratner
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Red DragonMark Waters
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 Spiderwick ChroniclesFrancis Lawrence
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Red SparrowDean Parisot
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RED 2Jonathan A. Rosenbaum
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Woody Woodpecker Goes to CampBrian Dannelly
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Saved!Herbert Ross
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Boys on the SideJohn Turturro
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Romance & CigarettesJane Campion
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 Portrait of a LadyKatie Holmes
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Happy Hours, Part 1Six 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
Red Dragon
as Molly Graham
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 Spiderwick Chronicles
as Helen Grace
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Red Dragon
as Molly Graham
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Bonnie
as Self
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Young Washington
as Mary Washington
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. Mary-Louise Parker 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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
9 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
The Spiderwick Chronicles
as Helen Grace
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Red Dragon
as Molly Graham
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Spiderwick Chronicles
as Helen Grace
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Red Sparrow
as Stephanie Boucher
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
RED
as Sarah Ross
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
RED
as Sarah Ross
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Spiderwick Chronicles
as Helen Grace
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Bonnie
as Self
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
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
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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