Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#303
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Owen Wilson represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 33 years in, and Owen is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Owen Wilson appears in 61 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Owen. The Grand Budapest Hotel is the clearest case: a film rated 8.8 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, music, romance. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Jeremy Garelick, John Hamburg, Peyton Reed and others, Owen Wilson 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 Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) as M. Chuck · Wonder (2017) as Nate · The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) as M. Chuck
Career snapshot
Ranked #303 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
61
1993–2026
Career length
33 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.8
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Average Nutevio score
6.1
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.1
Wonder
Most frequent director
Wes Anderson
9 films together
Longest collaboration
9×
With Wes Anderson
Most common genre
Comedy
51 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
6.6
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
2000s
6.4 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Fantastic Mr. Fox, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Drillbit Taylor — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.4
Across 22 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.4
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. The Haunting, Armageddon, Anaconda.
Most productive era
2000s
22 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.32 films | 7.04 films | 7.36 films | 6.23 films |
| Action | 7.01 film | 6.04 films | 5.93 films | 4.74 films |
| Thriller | 5.83 films | 5.92 films | 7.01 film | 0.01 film |
| Comedy | 6.33 films | 6.421 films | 6.218 films | 4.29 films |
| Crime | 6.52 films | 5.42 films | 5.81 film | — |
| Romance | — | 6.34 films | 6.05 films | 4.03 films |
| Horror | 5.72 films | 6.31 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1993Bottle Rocket
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Dignan.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
8.8 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
2026Runner
The current state of the argument, as Ben.
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.
61 of 61 films
as Nate
Directed by Stephen Chbosky
as M. Chuck
Directed by Wes Anderson
as John Grogan
Directed by David Frankel
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 67 titles · 75 total credits · active 1993–2026
Rolling Loud
2026 · Actor
Focker-in-Law
2026 · Kevin Rawley
Runner
2026 · Ben
Charlie the Wonderdog
2025 · Charlie (voice)
Stick
2025 · TV · Pryce Cahill · Executive Producer
LEGO Pixar: BrickToons
2024 · TV · Lighting McQueen (voice)
Paint
2023 · Carl Nargle · Executive Producer
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
2023 · Mobius M. Mobius (uncredited)
Haunted Mansion
2023 · Father Kent
Secret Headquarters
2022 · Jack
Marry Me
2022 · Charlie Gilbert
Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist
2022 · TV · Self - Fan of Notre Dame, 2012 Game (archive footage)
Cars on the Road
2022 · TV · Lightning McQueen (voice)
The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun
2021 · Herbsaint Sazerac
Jackie Chan: Building an Icon
2021 · Self (archive footage)
Marvel Studios' 2021 Disney+ Day Special
2021 · Mobius M. Mobius (archive footage)
Loki
2021 · TV · Mobius M. Mobius
Cars 3
2017 · Lightning McQueen (voice)
Wonder
2017 · Nate
Father Figures
2017 · Kyle Reynolds
Zoolander 2
2016 · Hansel
Masterminds
2016 · Steve Chambers
WIRED's Autocomplete Interviews
2016 · TV · Self - Guest
She's Funny That Way
2015 · Arnold Albertson
The defining work
#1
Nate
Wonder (2017)
Performance score8.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Nate gives Owen Wilson a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
M. Chuck
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Performance score8.4
The Grand Budapest Hotel asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. M. Chuck is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Gil
Midnight in Paris (2011)
Performance score8.1
Midnight in Paris asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Gil is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
M. Chuck
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Performance score7.9
The Grand Budapest Hotel asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. M. Chuck 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 Nate
Start here. Wonder is the clearest statement of what Owen Wilson does — accessible, 113 minutes, and rated 8.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Owen 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.
Marley & Me (2008)
Keeps the family register of Wonder but asks for a colder reading of it.
Midnight in Paris (2011)
Keeps the comedy register of Marley & Me but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Keeps the comedy register of Midnight in Paris but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Same director as The Grand Budapest Hotel, 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.
Wes Anderson
Director
9 films together
Notably The Grand Budapest Hotel
Shawn Levy
Director
4 films together
Notably Night at the Museum
John Lasseter
Director
3 films together
Notably Cars
Ben Stiller
Director
3 films together
Notably Zoolander
Jay Roach
Director
2 films together
Notably Meet the Parents
David Dobkin
Director
2 films together
Notably Wedding Crashers
David Frankel
Director
2 films together
Notably Marley & Me
Luis Llosa
Director
1 film together
Notably Anaconda
Michael Bay
Director
1 film together
Notably Armageddon
Jan de Bont
Director
1 film together
Notably The Haunting
Betty Thomas
Director
1 film together
Notably I Spy
Frank Coraci
Director
1 film together
Notably Around the World in 80 Days
Todd Phillips
Director
1 film together
Notably Starsky & Hutch
Anthony Russo
Director
1 film together
Notably You, Me and Dupree
Steven Brill
Director
1 film together
Notably Drillbit Taylor
James L. Brooks
Director
1 film together
Notably How Do You Know
Paul Weitz
Director
1 film together
Notably Little Fockers
Bobby Farrelly
Director
1 film together
Notably Hall Pass
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably Midnight in Paris
Matthew Weiner
Director
1 film together
Notably Are You Here
Paul Thomas Anderson
Director
1 film together
Notably Inherent Vice
John Erick Dowdle
Director
1 film together
Notably No Escape
Peter Bogdanovich
Director
1 film together
Notably She's Funny That Way
Jared Hess
Director
1 film together
Notably Masterminds
Lawrence Sher
Director
1 film together
Notably Father Figures
Stephen Chbosky
Director
1 film together
Notably Wonder
Brian Fee
Director
1 film together
Notably Cars 3
Kat Coiro
Director
1 film together
Notably Marry Me
Henry Joost
Director
1 film together
Notably Secret Headquarters
Justin Simien
Director
1 film together
Notably Haunted Mansion
Peyton Reed
Director
1 film together
Notably Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
John Hamburg
Director
1 film together
Notably Focker-in-Law
Jeremy Garelick
Director
1 film together
Notably Rolling Loud
Léa Seydoux
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Grand Budapest Hotel
Edward Norton
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Grand Budapest Hotel
Harvey Keitel
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ralph Fiennes
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Grand Budapest Hotel
F. Murray Abraham
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Grand Budapest Hotel
Mathieu Amalric
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Grand Budapest Hotel
Adrien Brody
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Grand Budapest Hotel
Willem Dafoe
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Grand Budapest Hotel
Jeff Goldblum
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Grand Budapest Hotel
Jude Law
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Grand Budapest Hotel
Bill Murray
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Grand Budapest Hotel
Saoirse Ronan
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Grand Budapest Hotel
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Wes Anderson
Director
9 films together · 7.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 9 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Grand Budapest HotelShawn Levy
Director
4 films together · 6.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Night at the MuseumJohn Lasseter
Director
3 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
CarsBen Stiller
Director
3 films together · 5.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
ZoolanderDavid Frankel
Director
2 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Marley & MeJay Roach
Director
2 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Meet the ParentsDavid Dobkin
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Wedding CrashersStephen Chbosky
Director
1 film together · 8.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
WonderWoody Allen
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Midnight in ParisBrian Fee
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cars 3John Erick Dowdle
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
No EscapeMichael Bay
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ArmageddonKat Coiro
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Marry MePaul Thomas Anderson
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Inherent ViceJustin Simien
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Haunted MansionHenry Joost
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Secret HeadquartersPeyton Reed
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ant-Man and the Wasp: QuantumaniaFrank Coraci
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Around the World in 80 DaysPeter Bogdanovich
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
She's Funny That WayLawrence Sher
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Father FiguresJared Hess
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MastermindsSteven Brill
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Drillbit TaylorTodd Phillips
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Starsky & HutchJan de Bont
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The HauntingBobby Farrelly
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hall PassPaul Weitz
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Little FockersAnthony Russo
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
You, Me and DupreeLuis Llosa
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AnacondaBetty Thomas
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
I SpyJames L. Brooks
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
How Do You KnowMatthew Weiner
Director
1 film together · 5.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Are You HereJeremy Garelick
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rolling LoudJohn Hamburg
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Focker-in-LawSix 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 Grand Budapest Hotel
as M. Chuck
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Wonder
as Nate
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 Grand Budapest Hotel
as M. Chuck
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
as Mobius M. Mobius (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Wonder
as Nate
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. Owen Wilson has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 7.9 | 8.9 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #540 of 681 | #2 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 4 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 2 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 6 |
| Average Nutevio score | 8.8 | 9.3 |
| Genres | Comedy, Adventure, Drama | Sci-Fi, Adventure, Drama, Thriller |
| Directors | Wes Anderson | Christopher Nolan |
| Performance DNA | Screen presence, Rewatchability, Comedy | Transformation, Screen presence, Rewatchability |
| Career timeline | 2014–2014 | 2006–2014 |
| Most iconic role | M. Chuck — The Grand Budapest Hotel | Professor Brand — Interstellar |
| Most rewatchable film | The Grand Budapest Hotel | The Dark Knight |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared collections
Adventure Movies, Drama Movies
Michael Caine edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
33 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
51 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
The Grand Budapest Hotel
as M. Chuck
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Grand Budapest Hotel
as M. Chuck
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Cars 3
as Lightning McQueen (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Haunting
as Luke Sanderson
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Grand Budapest Hotel
as M. Chuck
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Charlie the Wonderdog
as Charlie (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Charlie the Wonderdog
as Charlie (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Grand Budapest Hotel
as M. Chuck
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 5 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
genre
Best Comedies
Features The Grand Budapest Hotel at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Comedy Movies
Features The Grand Budapest Hotel at #2
Read the collectiongenre
Best Family Movies
Features The Grand Budapest Hotel at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Adventure Movies
Features The Grand Budapest Hotel
Read the collectiongenre
Drama Movies
Features The Grand Budapest Hotel
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
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
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Edward Norton
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Harvey Keitel
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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