Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#9651
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Nelson Bonilla 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.
Nelson Bonilla appears in 13 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Nelson. Creed 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 action, comedy, crime. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Tim Story, Jake Kasdan, Howard Deutch and others, Nelson Bonilla 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.
Creed (2015) as Staff Member #2 · Red One (2024) as MORA Agent · Cherry (2021) as Emily's Step-Father
Career snapshot
Ranked #9651 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
13
2013–2025
Career length
12 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
Creed
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.2
Sacrifice
Most frequent director
Tim Story
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Tim Story
Most common genre
Drama
6 titles
Average runtime
1h 51m
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
2020s
6.7 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. The Pickup, Red One, Buried in Barstow — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
6.7
Across 6 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
7.0
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2010s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. First Man, Dirty Grandpa, Creed.
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 | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.23 films | 6.63 films |
| Action | 6.51 film | 6.73 films |
| Thriller | 6.51 film | 6.72 films |
| Comedy | 6.33 films | 6.82 films |
| Crime | 6.11 film | 6.82 films |
| Romance | 6.91 film | 6.21 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2013Identity Thief
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Cop Giving Traffic Ticket.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2015Creed
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
2025The Pickup
The current state of the argument, as Casino Guard.
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.
13 of 13 films
as MORA Agent
Directed by Jake Kasdan
as Emily's Step-Father
Directed by Anthony Russo
as NASA PAO
Directed by Damien Chazelle
as TSA Agent
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
Staff Member #2
Creed (2015)
Performance score7.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Staff Member #2 gives Nelson Bonilla a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
MORA Agent
Red One (2024)
Performance score7.0
Red One asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. MORA Agent is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Emily's Step-Father
Cherry (2021)
Performance score7.0
Cherry asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Emily's Step-Father is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
NASA PAO
First Man (2018)
Performance score7.0
First Man asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. NASA PAO 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 Staff Member #2
Start here. Creed is the clearest statement of what Nelson Bonilla does — accessible, 133 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Nelson 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.
Endless Love (2014)
Keeps the drama register of Creed but asks for a colder reading of it.
First Man (2018)
Keeps the drama register of Endless Love but asks for a colder reading of it.
Cherry (2021)
Keeps the drama register of First Man but asks for a colder reading of it.
Red One (2024)
A deliberate change of key after Cherry — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Seth Gordon
Director
1 film together
Notably Identity Thief
Robert Schwentke
Director
1 film together
Notably Insurgent
Ryan Coogler
Director
1 film together
Notably Creed
Dan Mazer
Director
1 film together
Notably Dirty Grandpa
Damien Chazelle
Director
1 film together
Notably First Man
Anthony Russo
Director
1 film together
Notably Cherry
Howard Deutch
Director
1 film together
Notably Buried in Barstow
Jake Kasdan
Director
1 film together
Notably Red One
Tim Story
Director
1 film together
Notably The Pickup
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Ryan Coogler
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CreedJake Kasdan
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 OneAnthony Russo
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CherryDamien Chazelle
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
First ManHoward Deutch
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Buried in BarstowTim Story
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 PickupRobert Schwentke
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
InsurgentDan Mazer
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 GrandpaSeth Gordon
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Identity ThiefSix 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
Creed
as Staff Member #2
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Endless Love
as TSA Agent
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Creed
as Staff Member #2
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
First Man
as NASA PAO
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Creed
as Staff Member #2
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. Nelson Bonilla 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.
Drama Legend
Awarded
6 catalogue titles in drama, 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
Creed
as Staff Member #2
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Cherry
as Emily's Step-Father
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Endless Love
as TSA Agent
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Cherry
as Emily's Step-Father
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Red One
as MORA Agent
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Red One
as MORA Agent
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Endless Love
as TSA Agent
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Time Capsule
as Hank
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
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Reference
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