Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1552
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Nick Frost 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.
Nick Frost appears in 35 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Nick. How to Train Your Dragon 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, fantasy, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Dean DeBlois, Eliot Rausch, Corin Hardy and others, Nick Frost 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.
How to Train Your Dragon (2025) as Gobber · Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic (2026) as Narrator (voice) · Hot Fuzz (2007) as PC Danny Butterman
Career snapshot
Ranked #1552 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
35
2004–2027
Career length
23 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.9
How to Train Your Dragon
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.9
How to Train Your Dragon
Most frequent director
Edgar Wright
4 films together
Longest collaboration
4×
With Edgar Wright
Most common genre
Comedy
23 titles
Average runtime
1h 37m
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
7.2 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. The Boat That Rocked, Wild Child, Hot Fuzz — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.2
Across 6 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
7.1
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2000s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Boat That Rocked, Wild Child, Hot Fuzz.
Most productive era
2020s
15 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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.02 films | 6.31 film | 7.51 film |
| Action | 7.32 films | 6.34 films | 5.23 films |
| Thriller | 7.01 film | — | — |
| Comedy | 7.25 films | 6.311 films | 6.07 films |
| Crime | 7.71 film | — | — |
| Romance | 6.82 films | 6.11 film | 6.43 films |
| Horror | 7.32 films | 5.61 film | 5.53 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Ed.
Highest rated performance
7.9 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2026Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2027How to Train Your Dragon 2
The current state of the argument, as Gobber.
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.
35 of 35 films
as PC Danny Butterman
Directed by Edgar Wright
as Gobber
Directed by Dean DeBlois
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
Narrator (voice)
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic (2026)
Performance score8.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Narrator (voice) gives Nick Frost a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Jeff
Vert (2020)
Performance score8.1
Vert asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jeff is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
PC Danny Butterman
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Performance score8.0
Hot Fuzz asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. PC Danny Butterman is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Gobber
How to Train Your Dragon (2025)
Performance score7.9
How to Train Your Dragon asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Gobber 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 Narrator (voice)
Start here. Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic is the clearest statement of what Nick Frost does — accessible, 26 minutes, and rated 7.8 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Nick 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.
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
A deliberate change of key after Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Same director as Shaun of the Dead, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Vert (2020)
A deliberate change of key after Hot Fuzz — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
How to Train Your Dragon (2025)
A deliberate change of key after Vert — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Edgar Wright
Director
4 films together
Notably Hot Fuzz
Dean DeBlois
Director
2 films together
Notably How to Train Your Dragon
Mark Palansky
Director
1 film together
Notably Penelope
Quentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together
Notably Grindhouse
Richard Curtis
Director
1 film together
Notably The Boat That Rocked
Greg Mottola
Director
1 film together
Notably Paul
Steven Spielberg
Director
1 film together
Notably The Adventures of Tintin
James Griffiths
Director
1 film together
Notably Cuban Fury
Cedric Nicolas-Troyan
Director
1 film together
Notably The Huntsman: Winter's War
Dominic Brigstocke
Director
1 film together
Notably Horrible Histories: The Movie — Rotten Romans
Stephen Merchant
Director
1 film together
Notably Fighting with My Family
Melchior Zwyer
Director
1 film together
Notably Scooby-Doo! The Sword and the Scoob
David Silverman
Director
1 film together
Notably Extinct
Francisco Ruiz Velasco
Director
1 film together
Notably Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans
Alex Pillai
Director
1 film together
Notably How to Date Billy Walsh
Alice Lowe
Director
1 film together
Notably Timestalker
Corin Hardy
Director
1 film together
Notably Whistle
Eliot Rausch
Director
1 film together
Notably Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Edgar Wright
Director
4 films together · 7.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Hot FuzzDean DeBlois
Director
2 films together · 4.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
How to Train Your DragonEliot Rausch
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the MagicFrancisco Ruiz Velasco
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Trollhunters: Rise of the TitansMelchior Zwyer
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scooby-Doo! The Sword and the ScoobRichard Curtis
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Boat That RockedQuentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GrindhouseSteven Spielberg
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Adventures of TintinStephen Merchant
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fighting with My FamilyGreg Mottola
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PaulMark Palansky
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PenelopeCorin Hardy
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
WhistleAlex Pillai
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
How to Date Billy WalshCedric Nicolas-Troyan
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Huntsman: Winter's WarDavid Silverman
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ExtinctJames Griffiths
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cuban FuryAlice Lowe
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TimestalkerDominic Brigstocke
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Horrible Histories: The Movie — Rotten RomansSix 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
How to Train Your Dragon
as Gobber
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Vert
as Jeff
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
How to Train Your Dragon
as Gobber
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Sparks Brothers
as Ringo Starr (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic
as Narrator (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. Nick Frost 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
23 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
Scooby-Doo! The Sword and the Scoob
as Merlin (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Hot Fuzz
as PC Danny Butterman
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Vert
as Jeff
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Scooby-Doo! The Sword and the Scoob
as Merlin (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
How to Train Your Dragon
as Gobber
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
How to Train Your Dragon
as Gobber
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans
as Stuart (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Hot Fuzz
as PC Danny Butterman
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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Harvey Keitel
Works with the same directors — Quentin Tarantino
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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