Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2715
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Max Kraus 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.
Max Kraus appears in 12 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Max. Masters of the Universe is the clearest case: a film rated 7.4 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, fantasy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with James Bamford, Travis Knight, Macon Blair and others, Max Kraus 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.
Masters of the Universe (2026) as Officer Black · The Princess (2022) as Kitchen Merc #1 · The Internship (2026) as Leather Jacket
Career snapshot
Ranked #2715 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
12
2022–2026
Career length
4 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.4
Masters of the Universe
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.3
Masters of the Universe
Most frequent director
James Bamford
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With James Bamford
Most common genre
Action
9 titles
Average runtime
1h 42m
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
6.1
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
2020s
6.3 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. The Internship, Masters of the Universe, Man of War — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
6.3
Across 12 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
6.3
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2020s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Internship, Masters of the Universe, Man of War.
Most productive era
2020s
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 | 2020s |
|---|---|
| Drama | 6.11 film |
| Action | 6.29 films |
| Thriller | 6.34 films |
| Comedy | 6.22 films |
| Crime | 6.01 film |
| Romance | 6.41 film |
| Horror | 5.82 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2022The Princess
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Kitchen Merc #1.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
7.4 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
2026Man of War
The current state of the argument, as Ringo.
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 Officer Black
Directed by Travis Knight
as Kitchen Merc #1
Directed by Unknown
as Leather Jacket
Directed by James Bamford
as Actor
Directed by Unknown
as Ringo
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.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Officer Black
Masters of the Universe (2026)
Performance score7.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Officer Black gives Max Kraus a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Kitchen Merc #1
The Princess (2022)
Performance score6.7
The Princess asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Kitchen Merc #1 is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Leather Jacket
The Internship (2026)
Performance score6.6
The Internship asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Leather Jacket is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Actor
Subservience (2024)
Performance score6.6
Subservience asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Actor 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 Officer Black
Start here. Masters of the Universe is the clearest statement of what Max Kraus does — accessible, 141 minutes, and rated 7.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Max 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 Princess (2022)
Keeps the action register of Masters of the Universe but asks for a colder reading of it.
Subservience (2024)
Same director as The Princess, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
The Internship (2026)
A deliberate change of key after Subservience — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Man of War (2026)
Keeps the action register of The Internship but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
James Bamford
Director
3 films together
Notably The Internship
Renny Harlin
Director
1 film together
Notably Refuge
Martin Campbell
Director
1 film together
Notably Dirty Angels
Clare Niederpruem
Director
1 film together
Notably The Royal We
MJ Bassett
Director
1 film together
Notably Red Sonja
Macon Blair
Director
1 film together
Notably The Toxic Avenger Unrated
Travis Knight
Director
1 film together
Notably Masters of the Universe
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
James Bamford
Director
3 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The InternshipTravis 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 UniverseClare Niederpruem
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Royal WeMartin Campbell
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dirty AngelsMacon Blair
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Toxic Avenger UnratedMJ Bassett
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 SonjaRenny Harlin
Director
1 film together · 4.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RefugeSix 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
Masters of the Universe
as Officer Black
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 Royal We
as Rooster
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Masters of the Universe
as Officer Black
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Toxic Avenger Unrated
as "Youse!"
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Masters of the Universe
as Officer Black
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. Max Kraus 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
9 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
Masters of the Universe
as Officer Black
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Masters of the Universe
as Officer Black
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Royal We
as Rooster
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Princess
as Kitchen Merc #1
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Masters of the Universe
as Officer Black
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Red Sonja
as Larkan
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Dirty Angels
as Collins / Ranger
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Masters of the Universe
as Officer Black
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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