Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2991
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Travis Willingham 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.
Travis Willingham appears in 14 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Travis. Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons is the clearest case: a film rated 7.6 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, screen presence. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for science fiction, comedy, animation. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Ken Cunningham, Kerry Shawcross, Matt Peters and others, Travis Willingham 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.
Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons (2022) as Clark Kent / Superman (voice) · Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright (2013) as Waldo (voice) · Ben 10 vs. the Universe: The Movie (2020) as Cannonbolt (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #2991 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
14
2003–2024
Career length
21 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.6
Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons
Average Nutevio score
6.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.6
Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons
Most frequent director
Henrique Jardim
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Henrique Jardim
Most common genre
Animation
12 titles
Average runtime
1h 15m
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
2010s
7.2 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island, Batman: Bad Blood, Batman: Assault on Arkham — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
7.2
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
7.2
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 Guardian, Secondhand Lions.
Most productive era
2020s
8 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 | 7.22 films | — | — |
| Action | 7.11 film | 7.22 films | 6.77 films |
| Thriller | — | 7.31 film | — |
| Comedy | 7.21 film | 7.32 films | 6.51 film |
| Crime | — | 7.22 films | — |
| Horror | — | 7.01 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2003Secondhand Lions
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Hood.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
7.6 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
2024LEGO Marvel Avengers: Mission Demolition
The current state of the argument, as Thor (voice).
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.
14 of 14 films
as Clark Kent / Superman (voice)
Directed by Matt Peters
as Waldo (voice)
Directed by Victor Cook
as Cannonbolt (voice)
Directed by Henrique Jardim
as Superman / Clark Kent (voice)
Directed by Kerry Shawcross
as Morgue Guy / Penguin Thug (voice)
Directed by Ethan Spaulding
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
Clark Kent / Superman (voice)
Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons (2022)
Performance score7.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Clark Kent / Superman (voice) gives Travis Willingham a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Waldo (voice)
Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright (2013)
Performance score7.4
Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Waldo (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Cannonbolt (voice)
Ben 10 vs. the Universe: The Movie (2020)
Performance score7.3
Ben 10 vs. the Universe: The Movie asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Cannonbolt (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Superman / Clark Kent (voice)
Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part Two (2023)
Performance score7.2
Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part Two asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Superman / Clark Kent (voice) 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 Clark Kent / Superman (voice)
Start here. Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons is the clearest statement of what Travis Willingham does — accessible, 80 minutes, and rated 7.6 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Travis 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.
Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright (2013)
Keeps the animation register of Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons but asks for a colder reading of it.
Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014)
Keeps the animation register of Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright but asks for a colder reading of it.
Ben 10 vs. the Universe: The Movie (2020)
Keeps the action register of Batman: Assault on Arkham but asks for a colder reading of it.
Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part Two (2023)
Keeps the action register of Ben 10 vs. the Universe: The Movie but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Henrique Jardim
Director
3 films together
Notably Ben 10 vs. the Universe: The Movie
Ethan Spaulding
Director
2 films together
Notably Batman: Assault on Arkham
Ken Cunningham
Director
2 films together
Notably LEGO Marvel Avengers: Mission Demolition
Tim McCanlies
Director
1 film together
Notably Secondhand Lions
Andrew Davis
Director
1 film together
Notably The Guardian
Victor Cook
Director
1 film together
Notably Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright
Jay Oliva
Director
1 film together
Notably Batman: Bad Blood
Sam Liu
Director
1 film together
Notably Superman: Red Son
Matt Peters
Director
1 film together
Notably Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons
Kerry Shawcross
Director
1 film together
Notably Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part Two
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Henrique Jardim
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
Ben 10 vs. the Universe: The MovieEthan Spaulding
Director
2 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Batman: Assault on ArkhamKen Cunningham
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
LEGO Marvel Avengers: Mission DemolitionMatt Peters
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super SonsVictor Cook
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! Stage FrightTim McCanlies
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Secondhand LionsSam Liu
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Superman: Red SonAndrew Davis
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 GuardianJay Oliva
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Batman: Bad BloodKerry Shawcross
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part TwoSix 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 Guardian
as Travis Finely
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island
as Seaver (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
Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright
as Waldo (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Secondhand Lions
as Hood
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons
as Clark Kent / Superman (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. Travis Willingham 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
21 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.
Animation Legend
Awarded
12 catalogue titles in animation, 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! Stage Fright
as Waldo (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Batman: Assault on Arkham
as Morgue Guy / Penguin Thug (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island
as Seaver (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island
as Seaver (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Ben 10 vs. the Universe: The Movie
as Cannonbolt (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part Two
as Superman / Clark Kent (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island
as Seaver (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright
as Waldo (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Have your say
Community
Which Travis Willingham 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
