Age: 57
male
Michael Stuhlbarg (/ˈstuːlˌbɑːrɡ/ STOOL-barg; born July 5, 1968) is an American actor. He is known as a character actor, having portrayed a variety of roles in film, television, and theatre. He has received several awards, including nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and a Golden Globe Award. He rose to prominence as troubled university professor Larry Gopnik in the 2009 dark comedy film A Serious Man, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Stuhlbarg has since become known as a character actor and has appeared in numerous films and television series portraying real-life figures, such as George Yeaman in Lincoln (2012), Lew Wasserman in Hitchcock (2012), Andy Hertzfeld in Steve Jobs (2015), Edward G. Robinson in Trumbo (2015), Abe Rosenthal in The Post (2017), and Stanley Edgar Hyman in Shirley (2020). His other supporting roles include Hugo (2011), Men in Black 3 (2012), Blue Jasmine (2013), Pawn Sacrifice (2014), Arrival (2016), Call Me by Your Name and The Shape of Water (both 2017), and Bones and All (2022). He joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing as Nicodemus West in Doctor Strange (2016) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). On television, he portrayed Arnold Rothstein in HBO's Boardwalk Empire (2010–2013), Richard A. Clarke in The Looming Tower (2018), and Richard Sackler in Dopesick (2021), receiving Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie nominations for the latter two. He also acted in FX's Fargo (2017), Showtime's Your Honour (2020–2023), and HBO's The Staircase (2022). On stage, Stuhlbarg has acted in numerous productions, including the 2005 debut of Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman on Broadway, for which he won a Drama Desk Award and received a Tony Award nomination. He returned to Broadway playing Boris Berezovsky in Peter Morgan's Patriots (2024) and received a second Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play. Description above from the Wikipedia article Michael Stuhlbarg, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Eleven-year-old Nora has been secretly hiding her extraordinary intelligence from her parents and teachers, and still trying her best to do badly in school to prove to herself as "nothing more than average." To disguise her intellect, Nora observes and emulates her classmates so she doesn't stand out. She becomes interested in one of her classmates, Stephen, and they become friends. When their CMT scores come out, Stephen's low scores convince him that he is stupid as students start treating the scores as a competition reflecting their intelligence. To encourage Stephen and prove the CMT scores are meaningless, Nora deliberately gets a bad report card: all Ds except for a C in spelling. Nora admits to Stephen that she is actually a genius and he comes up with a plan to prove grades don't reflect everyone about a student. He intentionally tells the school's gossip, Jennie Springs, that Nora is a genius. As word spreads, Nora begins to act like a snob and challenges teachers by bringing up topics that have not been taught in class yet. When she is confronted by the principal, Ms. Hackney, the next day for scoring a zero on her last three tests, Nora explains that she dislikes grades because they cause too much competition. She stays home the next day, pretending to be sick, but gives up her ploy when she discovers that Stephen has started a campaign for all students to rebel by scoring zeros on their next tests. During a school meeting, Stephen and Nora apologize on behalf of the involved students before the whole school. Nora expresses that she thinks grades cause too much competition, it causes the extra smart kids to be all snobbish and stuck-up, and the normal kids to think they're dumb. Mrs. Byrne supports Nora, saying that she did think grades were getting too much attention. Nora tells her mother and Ms. Hackney that she does not want to be promoted to special classes, as she prefers to stay normal. After the meeting, Nora says goodbye to Stephen for the day and tells him she's glad that he treated her normally.
