Celebrity Biographies
Jason Momoa
Although he has become famous for playing tough guys like Khal Drogo and Conan, Jason Momoa surprises because in reality he is a hippy-looking, cultured Hawaiian who dreams of succeeding as a writer and director of auteur films.
Born on August 1, 1979, in the capital of Hawaii, Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa is the son of a single mother who took care of him alone because his father, a native Hawaiian, disowned the boy. This, an artist of half Irish and half German descent, took him to Norwalk (Iowa), where he spent his childhood, and instilled in him a taste for art and painting. “He has refined tastes and when I was little he instilled in me a taste for classic cinema,” Momoa told me in an interview.
At the age of 19, he decided to return to Hawaii, where his uncle, Brian Keaulana, a legendary local surfer, lives. There, Momoa’s powerful musculature caught the attention of Takeo, a designer who hired him as a model. She was so good at posing for the cameras that she took home the Hawaiian Model of the Year award.
After appearing at a casting in which hundreds of applicants competed, Momoa won a leading role in the series Baywatch , where he patrolled the coast of Hawaii in a red swimsuit for the last two seasons, and gained prominence, especially after the legendary David Hasselhoff left the series.
He then continued his success with the youth series North Shore , about a hotel for the rich, also in Hawaii. Next it was Ronon Dex, former fugitive turned member of the team that starred in the sci-fi series Stargate: Atlantis .
Momoa’s romantic partner is Lisa Bonet , an actress 12 years older, who rose to fame as the daughter of the protagonist in The Bill Cosby Hour , and who starred with Mickey Rourke in Angel Heart . With her he has had two children, the girl Lola Iolani Momoa, and the boy Nakoa Wolf-Manakauapo Namakaeha Momoa. In 2007 Momoa was the victim of an assault by a guy who attacked him with a beer mug, which smashed his face. He had to undergo reconstructive surgery.
2011 was the big year for Jason Momoa, who was cast in a supporting role in the HBO TV blockbuster Game of Thrones . He played Khal Drogo, brutal leader of a lineage of warrior horsemen – the Dorhraki – who took a beautiful young woman, Daenerys Targaryen, as his wife, in exchange for a promise to invade the continent from where she had to go into exile. Despite the brevity of his appearances, Momoa commanded attention as a ruthless and terrifying warrior who spoke in a guttural language but turned out to have a sensitive inside. “My girlfriend, Lisa, liked the show so much that she’s become a huge fan,” the actor told me.
Parallel to the gestation of the series, Momoa was chosen to replace none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger in the role that made him famous, the protagonist of Conan the Barbarian , in the review of the adventures of the character created by Robert E. Howard . The role, a troglodyte similar to Drogo, but with a vocation to help the weakest, suited the actor.
Creative by nature, Momoa wrote and directed the short Brown Bag Diaries: Ridin’ the Blinds in B Minor . He is set to direct the independent road movie Road to Paloma , in which he will also star. He has also thrown himself into writing a script for a possible sequel to Conan the Barbarian at his own risk .