Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#699
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Matt Gerald represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 32 years in, and Matt is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Matt Gerald appears in 24 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Matt. Avatar is the clearest case: a film rated 7.9 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, science fiction, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with James Cameron, Brad Peyton, Ric Roman Waugh and others, Matt Gerald 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.
Avatar (2009) as Corporal Lyle Wainfleet · Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) as Recom Wainfleet · Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) as Recom Wainfleet
Career snapshot
Ranked #699 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
24
1999–2031
Career length
32 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.9
Avatar
Average Nutevio score
6.0
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.7
Magnolia
Most frequent director
James Cameron
5 films together
Longest collaboration
5×
With James Cameron
Most common genre
Action
15 titles
Average runtime
1h 46m
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
1990s
7.7 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Magnolia — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.7
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
7.7
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. Magnolia.
Most productive era
2010s
12 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 | 2030s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.71 film | 6.33 films | 6.14 films | — | — |
| Action | — | 6.83 films | 6.38 films | 4.73 films | 0.01 film |
| Thriller | — | 6.22 films | 6.39 films | 6.21 film | — |
| Comedy | — | 6.12 films | 5.82 films | — | — |
| Crime | — | 6.22 films | 6.54 films | — | — |
| Romance | — | 6.11 film | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1999Magnolia
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Officer #2.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2009Avatar
7.9 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
2031Avatar 5
The current state of the argument, as Corporal Lyle Wainfleet.
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.
24 of 24 films
as Corporal Lyle Wainfleet
Directed by James Cameron
as Recom Wainfleet
Directed by James Cameron
as Recom Wainfleet
Directed by James Cameron
as Officer #2
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
as White Power Dave
Directed by Unknown
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
Corporal Lyle Wainfleet
Avatar (2009)
Performance score7.7
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Corporal Lyle Wainfleet gives Matt Gerald a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Recom Wainfleet
Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025)
Performance score7.6
Avatar: Fire and Ash asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Recom Wainfleet is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Recom Wainfleet
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Performance score7.6
Avatar: The Way of Water asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Recom Wainfleet is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Officer #2
Magnolia (1999)
Performance score7.5
Magnolia asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Officer #2 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 Corporal Lyle Wainfleet
Start here. Avatar is the clearest statement of what Matt Gerald does — accessible, 162 minutes, and rated 7.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Matt 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.
Magnolia (1999)
A deliberate change of key after Avatar — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King (2014)
A deliberate change of key after Magnolia — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Keeps the action register of Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King but asks for a colder reading of it.
Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025)
Same director as Avatar: The Way of Water, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
James Cameron
Director
5 films together
Notably Avatar
Brad Peyton
Director
2 films together
Notably Rampage
Paul Thomas Anderson
Director
1 film together
Notably Magnolia
Joel Schumacher
Director
1 film together
Notably Tigerland
Jonathan Mostow
Director
1 film together
Notably Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Clark Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably S.W.A.T.
Ron Underwood
Director
1 film together
Notably In The Mix
Clark Gregg
Director
1 film together
Notably Choke
George Tillman Jr.
Director
1 film together
Notably Faster
Dan Bradley
Director
1 film together
Notably Red Dawn
Mikael Håfström
Director
1 film together
Notably Escape Plan
Jon M. Chu
Director
1 film together
Notably G.I. Joe: Retaliation
David Ayer
Director
1 film together
Notably Bright
Ric Roman Waugh
Director
1 film together
Notably Shot Caller
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
James Cameron
Director
5 films together · 4.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 5 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
AvatarBrad Peyton
Director
2 films together · 6.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
RampagePaul Thomas Anderson
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MagnoliaRic Roman Waugh
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Shot CallerMikael Håfström
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Escape PlanJoel Schumacher
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TigerlandGeorge Tillman Jr.
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FasterDavid Ayer
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BrightClark Johnson
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
S.W.A.T.Jonathan Mostow
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Terminator 3: Rise of the MachinesClark Gregg
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ChokeRon Underwood
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In The MixJon M. Chu
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
G.I. Joe: RetaliationDan Bradley
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Red DawnSix 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
Avatar
as Corporal Lyle Wainfleet
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
In The Mix
as Jackie
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Avatar
as Corporal Lyle Wainfleet
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Magnolia
as Officer #2
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Avatar
as Corporal Lyle Wainfleet
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. Matt Gerald 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.
Action Legend
Awarded
15 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
Avatar: Fire and Ash
as Recom Wainfleet
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Avatar
as Corporal Lyle Wainfleet
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
In The Mix
as Jackie
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Solace
as Sloman
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Avatar
as Corporal Lyle Wainfleet
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Avatar: The Way of Water
as Recom Wainfleet
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
In The Mix
as Jackie
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Avatar
as Corporal Lyle Wainfleet
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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Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
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Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Elliot Page
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Christian Bale
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Have your say
Community
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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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