Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#257
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Natasha Lyonne represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 40 years in, and Natasha is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Natasha Lyonne appears in 36 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Natasha. The Bad Guys 2 is the clearest case: a film rated 7.5 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 comedy, science fiction, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Taika Waititi, Matt Shakman, Pierre Perifel and others, Natasha Lyonne 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 Bad Guys 2 (2025) as Doom aka Susan (voice) · Uncut Gems (2019) as Boston Player Personnel (voice) · The Fantastic 4: First Steps (2025) as Rachel Rozman
Career snapshot
Ranked #257 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
36
1986–2026
Career length
40 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
The Bad Guys 2
Average Nutevio score
6.1
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.6
The Bad Guys 2
Most frequent director
Taika Waititi
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Taika Waititi
Most common genre
Comedy
23 titles
Average runtime
1h 34m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
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
6.6
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
6.7 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Detroit Rock City, American Pie, Everyone Says I Love You — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.7
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.6
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Heartburn.
Most productive era
2020s
16 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 | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.21 film | — | 6.51 film | 6.65 films | 5.15 films |
| Action | — | — | 6.11 film | 5.31 film | 7.11 film |
| Thriller | — | — | — | 7.21 film | — |
| Comedy | 6.21 film | 6.73 films | 6.44 films | 6.27 films | 6.08 films |
| Crime | — | — | — | 6.72 films | 7.32 films |
| Romance | 6.21 film | 6.72 films | 6.52 films | 6.41 film | — |
| Horror | — | — | 6.11 film | 5.31 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1986Heartburn
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Rachel's Niece (uncredited).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2025The Bad Guys 2
7.5 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
The current state of the argument, as Manager.
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.
36 of 36 films
as Doom aka Susan (voice)
Directed by Pierre Perifel
as Boston Player Personnel (voice)
Directed by Benny Safdie
as Rachel Rozman
Directed by Matt Shakman
as Natasha Lyonne
Directed by Rian Johnson
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
Doom aka Susan (voice)
The Bad Guys 2 (2025)
Performance score7.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Doom aka Susan (voice) gives Natasha Lyonne a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Rachel
His Three Daughters (2024)
Performance score7.1
His Three Daughters asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Rachel is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Boston Player Personnel (voice)
Uncut Gems (2019)
Performance score7.1
Uncut Gems asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Boston Player Personnel (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Rachel Rozman
The Fantastic 4: First Steps (2025)
Performance score7.0
The Fantastic 4: First Steps asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Rachel Rozman 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 Doom aka Susan (voice)
Start here. The Bad Guys 2 is the clearest statement of what Natasha Lyonne does — accessible, 104 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Natasha 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.
Uncut Gems (2019)
Keeps the crime register of The Bad Guys 2 but asks for a colder reading of it.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)
Keeps the crime register of Uncut Gems but asks for a colder reading of it.
His Three Daughters (2024)
Keeps the comedy register of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Fantastic 4: First Steps (2025)
A deliberate change of key after His Three Daughters — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Mike Nichols
Director
1 film together
Notably Heartburn
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably Everyone Says I Love You
Paul Weitz
Director
1 film together
Notably American Pie
Adam Rifkin
Director
1 film together
Notably Detroit Rock City
Keenen Ivory Wayans
Director
1 film together
Notably Scary Movie 2
James Mangold
Director
1 film together
Notably Kate & Leopold
David S. Goyer
Director
1 film together
Notably Blade: Trinity
Chris Wedge
Director
1 film together
Notably Robots
Jon Hurwitz
Director
1 film together
Notably American Reunion
Leslye Headland
Director
1 film together
Notably Sleeping with Other People
Clea DuVall
Director
1 film together
Notably The Intervention
Kevin Smith
Director
1 film together
Notably Yoga Hosers
David Wain
Director
1 film together
Notably A Futile and Stupid Gesture
Raja Gosnell
Director
1 film together
Notably Show Dogs
Rhys Thomas
Director
1 film together
Notably John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch
Benny Safdie
Director
1 film together
Notably Uncut Gems
Alma Har'el
Director
1 film together
Notably Honey Boy
Donick Cary
Director
1 film together
Notably Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics
Jon Stewart
Director
1 film together
Notably Irresistible
Lee Daniels
Director
1 film together
Notably The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Rian Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Janicza Bravo
Director
1 film together
Notably House Comes with a Bird
Stephen Glover
Director
1 film together
Notably American Dream: The 21 Savage Story
Azazel Jacobs
Director
1 film together
Notably His Three Daughters
David Lowery
Director
1 film together
Notably An Almost Christmas Story
Chris Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably Smurfs
Pierre Perifel
Director
1 film together
Notably The Bad Guys 2
Matt Shakman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Fantastic 4: First Steps
Taika Waititi
Director
1 film together
Notably Klara and the Sun
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Pierre Perifel
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Bad Guys 2Benny Safdie
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Uncut GemsMatt Shakman
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 Fantastic 4: First StepsRian Johnson
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Glass Onion: A Knives Out MysteryAlma Har'el
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Honey BoyPaul Weitz
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
American PieDavid Lowery
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
An Almost Christmas StoryAzazel Jacobs
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
His Three DaughtersRhys Thomas
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch BunchAdam Rifkin
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Detroit Rock CityChris Wedge
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RobotsLee Daniels
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 United States vs. Billie HolidayDonick Cary
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Have a Good Trip: Adventures in PsychedelicsJon Hurwitz
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
American ReunionJames Mangold
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kate & LeopoldWoody Allen
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Everyone Says I Love YouDavid Wain
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Futile and Stupid GestureLeslye Headland
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sleeping with Other PeopleJanicza Bravo
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
House Comes with a BirdJon Stewart
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
IrresistibleRaja Gosnell
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Show DogsMike Nichols
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HeartburnChris Miller
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SmurfsClea DuVall
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The InterventionDavid S. Goyer
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Blade: TrinityKeenen Ivory Wayans
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scary Movie 2Stephen Glover
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
American Dream: The 21 Savage StoryKevin Smith
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Yoga HosersTaika Waititi
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Klara and the SunSix 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 Bad Guys 2
as Doom aka Susan (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
An Almost Christmas Story
as Pat (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
The Bad Guys 2
as Doom aka Susan (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Uncut Gems
as Boston Player Personnel (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Bad Guys 2
as Doom aka Susan (voice)
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. Natasha Lyonne 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
40 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
23 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
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
as Natasha Lyonne
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Uncut Gems
as Boston Player Personnel (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Smurfs
as Mama Poot (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
as Natasha Lyonne
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Fantastic 4: First Steps
as Rachel Rozman
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Fantastic 4: First Steps
as Rachel Rozman
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Bad Guys 2
as Doom aka Susan (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
American Dream: The 21 Savage Story
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
Which Natasha Lyonne performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
Join the conversation
Reference
Continue exploring
Trending performers
Directors they work with
Collections to read next
