Biography
Timothy Blake Nelson (born May 11, 1964) is an American actor and playwright. Described as a "modern character actor, his roles include Delmar O'Donnell in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Gideon in Minority Report (2002), Doctor Steve Pendanski in Holes (2003), Doctor Jonathan Jacobo in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), Danny Dalton Jr. in Syriana (2005), Samuel Sterns in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Richard Schell in Lincoln (2012), the titular character of The Ballad of Buster Scru...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Captain America: Brave New World
2025
as Samuel Sterns
After meeting with newly elected U.S. President Thaddeus Ross, Sam finds himself in the middle of an international incident. He must discover the reas...

Atropia
2025
as Mr. Speaker (voice)
When an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent, their unsimulated emotions threaten to...

Greedy People
2024
as Wallace
The eclectic residents of a small, picturesque island town must navigate a sensational murder and the discovery of a million dollars, leading to a ser...

Bang Bang
2024
as Bernard 'Bang Bang' Rozyski
Retired pugilist Bernard “Bang Bang” Rozyski is inspired to try his hand at training once he reconnects with his estranged grandson. While their train...

The Invisibles
2024
as Charlie
A couple facing the end of marriage, when the husband starts to disappear. As he fades from existence he discovers a new world of people who have disa...

Asleep in My Palm
2024
as Tom
It tells the story of a man and the daughter he's raising off the grid on the outskirts of an elite liberal arts college in northeastern Ohio.

Asleep in My Palm
2024
Producer
It tells the story of a man and the daughter he's raising off the grid on the outskirts of an elite liberal arts college in northeastern Ohio.

The Bricklayer
2023
as O'Malley
Someone is blackmailing the CIA by assassinating foreign journalists and making it look like the agency is responsible. As the world begins to unite a...

Ghosted
2023
as Borislov
Salt-of-the-earth Cole falls head over heels for enigmatic Sadie—but then makes the shocking discovery that she's a secret agent. Before they can deci...

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
2022
as Black Rabbits (voice)
During the rise of fascism in Mussolini's Italy, a wooden boy brought magically to life struggles to live up to his father's expectations.

Ninety-Five Senses
2022
as Coy (voice)
A heartfelt depiction of a man facing his own mortality while reflecting on the grave mistakes of his youth.

Ghosts of the Ozarks
2022
as Torb
In 1866, a young doctor is summoned by his uncle to a remote town in the Ozarks only to discover upon his arrival that the utopian paradise is not all...

National Champions
2021
as Rodger Cummings
A star quarterback ignites a players’ strike hours before the biggest game of the year in order to fight for fair compensation, equality, and respect ...

Nightmare Alley
2021
as Carny Boss
An ambitious carnival man with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychologist who is even more dang...

Old Henry
2021
as Henry
A widowed farmer and his son warily take in a mysterious, injured man with a satchel of cash. When a posse of men claiming to be the law come for the ...

Naked Singularity
2021
as Angus
When a successful New York public defender loses his first case, he is pulled into a drug heist by a former client in an effort to beat the broken sys...

Monster
2021
as Leroy Sawicki
The story of Steve Harmon, a 17-year-old honor student whose world comes crashing down around him when he is charged with felony murder.

Sequestrada
2019
as Thomas
An Amazonian chief’s 12-year-old daughter gets lost and kidnapped. While she is in the hands of a dishonest government official, the chief mistakenly ...

Just Mercy
2019
as Ralph Myers
The powerful true story of Harvard-educated lawyer Bryan Stevenson, who goes to Alabama to defend the disenfranchised and wrongly condemned — includin...

The Jesus Rolls
2019
as Doctor
Hours after his release from prison, Jesus Quintana pairs up with fellow misfits Petey and Marie for a freewheeling joyride of petty crime and romance...

The True Don Quixote
2019
as Don Quixote
Tim Blake Nelson is a man who's safe and comfortable and bored to death with his life. In his state of despair, he looks to classic stories for inspir...

The Report
2019
as Raymond Nathan
The story of Daniel Jones, lead investigator for the US Senate’s sweeping study into the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program, which was found to...

Angel Has Fallen
2019
as VP Kirby
After a treacherous attack, Secret Service agent Mike Banning is charged with attempting to assassinate President Trumbull. Chased by his own colleagu...

Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People
2019
as Teddy Roosevelt (voice)
A biographical history of Hungarian immigrant Joseph Pulitzer, who revolutionized how news is presented, to whom it is catered to and the power of giv...

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
2018
as Buster Scruggs (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
Vignettes weaving together the stories of six individuals in the old West at the end of the Civil War. Following the tales of a sharp-shooting songste...

The Vanishing of Sidney Hall
2018
as Johan
Over the course of 12 years, and three stages of life, Sidney Hall falls in love, writes the book of a generation and then disappears without a trace.

Wormwood
2017
as Sidney Gottlieb
In this genre-bending tale, Errol Morris explores the mysterious death of a U.S. scientist entangled in a secret Cold War program known as MK-Ultra.

Colossal
2017
as Garth
A woman discovers that severe catastrophic events are somehow connected to the mental breakdown from which she's suffering.

The Institute
2017
as Dr. Lemelle
In 19th century Baltimore, Isabel Porter, a girl stricken with grief from her parents' untimely death, voluntarily checks herself into the Rosewood In...

Deidra & Laney Rob a Train
2017
as Truman
After their mother ends up in jail, two sisters turn to train robbery in order to support their family.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
2016
as Wayne Foster
19-year-old Billy Lynn is brought home for a victory tour after a harrowing Iraq battle. Through flashbacks the film shows what really happened to his...

The Confirmation
2016
as Vaughn
A divorced father reconnects with his son when they track down a stolen toolbox over the course of a weekend.

Anesthesia
2016
as Adam Zarrow
Multiple lives intersect in the aftermath of the violent mugging of a Columbia University philosophy professor.

Anesthesia
2016
Director, Writer, Producer
Multiple lives intersect in the aftermath of the violent mugging of a Columbia University philosophy professor.

The Sound and the Fury
2015
as Father
A look at the trials and tribulations of The Compson siblings, living in the deep south during the early part of the 20th century.

Fantastic Four
2015
as Dr. Allen
Four young outsiders teleport to a dangerous universe, which alters their physical form in shocking ways. Their lives irrevocably upended, the team mu...

Black Dog, Red Dog
2015
as Bob
Follows the life of Stephen Dobyns as he deals with life, women, and his move from journalism to poetry.

Rickover: The Birth of Nuclear Power
2014
as Admiral Rickover
Dive into the life of the father of the nuclear Navy: Hyman Rickover. Combative, provocative, and blunt, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover was a flamboyant m...

Kill the Messenger
2014
as Alan Fenster
A reporter becomes the target of a vicious smear campaign that drives him to the point of suicide after he exposes the CIA's role in arming Contra reb...

The Homesman
2014
as The Freighter
When three women living on the edge of the American frontier are driven mad by harsh pioneer life, the task of saving them falls to the pious, indepen...

Child of God
2014
as Sheriff Fate
A dispossessed, violent man's life is a disastrous attempt to exist outside the social order. Successively deprived of parents and homes and with few ...
Misfire: The Rise and Fall of the Shooting Gallery
2013
as Self
A documentary about the influential independent film production company The Shooting Gallery.

As I Lay Dying
2013
as Anse
Strife and disaster befall a poor Mississippi family during a two-day trip by horse and wagon to bury their deceased matriarch.

Blue Caprice
2013
as Ray
A narrative feature film inspired by the events known as the Beltway sniper attacks.

Snake & Mongoose
2013
as Mike McAllister
The untold story of how two Southern California drag racers, Don "The Snake" Prudhomme and Tom "The Mongoose" McEwen, combined with corporate giants t...
Bukowski
2013
as Henry Bukowski
The story of writer Charles Bukowski's formative years from childhood to high school and his struggles with an abusive father, disfiguring acne, alcoh...

Lincoln
2012
as Richard Schell
The revealing story of the 16th US President's tumultuous final months in office. In a nation divided by war and the strong winds of change, Lincoln p...

Adventures in the Sin Bin
2012
as Officer Totsch
Brian is a private school student who routinely lends his van out so fellow students can have sex in it. When he is invited to become friends with Ton...

Big Miracle
2012
as Pat Lafaytette
A small-town news reporter and a Greenpeace volunteer enlist the help of rival superpowers to save three majestic gray whales trapped under the ice of...

The Big Year
2011
as Fuchs
Three fanatical bird-watchers spend an entire year competing to spot the highest number of species as El Nino sends an extraordinary variety of rare b...

Flypaper
2011
as Peanut Butter
A man caught in the middle of two simultaneous robberies at a bank desperately tries to protect the teller with whom he's secretly in love.

Detachment
2011
as Mr. Wiatt
A chronicle of three weeks in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators and students through the eyes of substitute teacher, Henry Bar...

Yelling To The Sky
2011
as Coleman
As her family falls apart, seventeen year old Sweetness O'Hara is left to fend for herself in a neighborhood where her survival is uncertain.

Saint John of Las Vegas
2010
as Ned
An ex-gambler is lured back into the game by a veteran insurance-fraud investigator.

Leaves of Grass
2009
as Bolger
An Ivy League professor returns home, where his pot-growing twin brother has concocted a plan to take down a local drug lord.

Leaves of Grass
2009
Director, Writer, Producer
An Ivy League professor returns home, where his pot-growing twin brother has concocted a plan to take down a local drug lord.

American Violet
2008
as David Cohen
A young single mother of four living in a small Texas town. Arrested during a drug raid and accused of a crime she didn't commit, Dee goes against the...

The Incredible Hulk
2008
as Samuel Sterns
Scientist Bruce Banner scours the planet for an antidote to the unbridled force of rage within him: the Hulk. But when the military masterminds who dr...

The Astronaut Farmer
2007
as Kevin Munchak
Texan Charles Farmer left the Air Force as a young man to save the family ranch when his dad died. Like most American ranchers, he owes his bank. Unli...

Hoot
2006
as Curly
A young man moves from Montana to Florida with his family, where he's compelled to engage in a fight to protect a population of endangered owls.

Fido
2006
as Mr. Theopolis
Timmy Robinson's best friend in the whole wide world is a six-foot tall rotting zombie named Fido. But when Fido eats the next-door neighbor, Mom and ...

The Darwin Awards
2006
as Perp
After botching the capture of a notorious serial killer, idiosyncratic detective Michael Burrows loses his job with the San Francisco Police. He becom...

The Amateurs
2006
as Barney
Sex sells in America and these guys know it. The Amateurs follows a small town band of loveable losers who hit upon an idea that can make their dreams...

Come Early Morning
2006
as Uncle Tim
A thirty-something southern woman searches for love, despite the burdens she carries with her.
Haskett's Chance
2006
Director
A murdered politician is given a second chance at life after he's reincarnated in a lower form.

Syriana
2005
as Danny Dalton
The Middle Eastern oil industry is the backdrop of this tense drama, which weaves together numerous story lines. Bennett Holiday is an American lawyer...

The Big White
2005
as Gary
To remedy his financial problems, a travel agent has his eye on a frozen corpse, which just happens to be sought after by two hitmen.

Warm Springs
2005
as Tom Loyless
Franklin Roosevelt, left a paraplegic from polio at 39 years of age, seeks out a miracle cure in the backwoods of Georgia.

My Suicidal Sweetheart
2005
as Doctor, Chief Nakahoma, Minister, Roger Bob
A suicidal comedy about two young lovers who get married and escape from a mental institution in search of new ways to die...and the white light.

Meet the Fockers
2004
as Officer LeFlore
Hard-to-crack ex-CIA man Jack Byrnes and his wife Dina head for the warmer climes of Florida to meet the parents of their son-in-law-to-be, Greg Focke...

The Last Shot
2004
as Marshal Paris
A movie director-screenwriter finds a man to finance his latest project but soon discovers that the producer is actually an undercover FBI agent worki...

Bereft
2004
as Dennis
A young Vermont widow is haunted by the memory of her dead husband, while trying to date again.

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
2004
as Jacobo
After solving their last mystery at Spooky Island, the Mystery Inc. gang is back in Coolsville, where they are being honored with their very own exhib...

Wonderland
2003
as Billy Deverell
On the afternoon of July 1, 1981, Los Angeles police responded to a distress call on Wonderland Avenue and discovered a grisly quadruple homicide. The...

Holes
2003
as Dr. Pendanski
A wrongfully convicted boy is sent to a brutal desert detention camp where he must dig holes in order to build character. What he doesn't know is that...

A Foreign Affair
2003
as Jake Adams
Two brothers need household help after their Ma passes away. They decide to join a romance tour to Russia to find and bring home a traditionally minde...

Minority Report
2002
as Gideon
John Anderton is a top 'Precrime' cop in the late-21st century, when technology can predict crimes before they're committed. But Anderton becomes the ...

Cherish
2002
as Daly
After a martini-induced rampage, a fantasy-prone young woman is placed under house arrest.

The Good Girl
2002
as Bubba
A discount store clerk strikes up an affair with a stock boy who considers himself the incarnation of Holden Caulfield.

The Grey Zone
2001
Director, Writer, Producer
The story of Auschwitz's twelfth Sonderkommando — one of the thirteen consecutive "Special Squads" of Jewish prisoners placed by the Nazis in the excr...

O
2001
Director
Even though he's the only black student at the elite Palmetto Grove Academy, star basketball player and future NBA hopeful Odin James has the adoratio...

Down from the Mountain
2001
as Self
On May 24, 2000, the historic Ryman Auditorium was booked to offer Nashvillians an evening of sublime beauty. Label executives and soundtrack producer...

O Brother, Where Art Thou?
2000
as Delmar O'Donnell
In the deep south during the 1930s, three escaped convicts search for hidden treasure while a relentless lawman pursues them.

Hamlet
2000
as Flight Captain
Modern day adaptation of Shakespeare's immortal story about Hamlet's plight to avenge his father's murder in New York City.

The Thin Red Line
1998
as Pvt. Brian Tills
The story of a group of men, an Army Rifle company called C-for-Charlie, who change, suffer, and ultimately make essential discoveries about themselve...

Eye of God
1997
Director, Screenplay
A small Oklahoma town is stripped of its innocence when one of its boys turns up mute and bloodied by the lakeside. Unable to tell his story, the loca...
Prix Fixe
1997
as Busboy

Donnie Brasco
1997
as FBI Technician
An FBI undercover agent infiltrates the mob and identifies more with the mafia life at the expense of his regular one.

Joe's Apartment
1996
as Cockroach (voice)
A nice guy has just moved to New York and discovers that he must share his run-down apartment with a couple thousand singing, dancing cockroaches.

Heavyweights
1995
as Camp Hope Salesman
Camp Hope is a summer retreat for overweight boys run by a kindly couple who make the campers feel comfortable with their extra pounds. But when tyran...

Amateur
1994
as Young Detective
A man wakes up in an alley, bleeding and with no memory of who he is. He stumbles into a coffee shop and is befriended by a charitable ex-nun who is f...

This Is My Life
1992
as Dennis
Single mom Dottie Ingels sells cosmetics in a department store, but she dreams of being a comedian. When she inherits some money, she takes the chance...
The Leader
N/A
as Marshall Applewhite
In 1997, thirty-nine members of the American cult known as "Heaven's Gate" committed the largest mass suicide to ever take place on American soil. Thi...

Thelma
N/A
as Arthur Ducoing
Follows John Kennedy Toole's mother, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Confederacy of Dunces. Toole died by suicide before finding a home for his...
The Long Home
N/A
A young contractor is hired to build a honky-tonk in Tennessee by the man who killed his father.

Ann Lee
N/A
An epic fable about religious leader Ann Lee, the founding leader of the Shaker Movement, who was proclaimed by her followers as the female Christ and...
The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd
N/A
Tim Blake Nelson's latest directorial effort follows a teacher in an abusive marriage who takes a job at a maximum security prison, where she falls fo...
Michael Zero
N/A
Director
It centers on a man who has to hunt down clones of himself who have gone AWOL from a war they were made to fight in and instead have set their sights ...
The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd
N/A
Director, Writer, Producer
Tim Blake Nelson's latest directorial effort follows a teacher in an abusive marriage who takes a job at a maximum security prison, where she falls fo...