Biography for
Jason Momoa More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

1 August 1979, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Birth Name

Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa

Height

6' 4" (1.93 m)

Mini Biography

Born Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 1st, 1979, Jason was raised in Norwalk, Iowa by his mother. After high school, he moved to Hawaii where he landed a lead role out of thousands of hopefuls in the TV series, "Baywatch" (1989) (known as "Baywatch Hawaii" in its tenth season). When the show ended, he spent the next couple of years traveling around the world. In 2001, he moved to Los Angeles where he continued to pursue an acting career.

In 2004, after the short-lived TV series "North Shore" (2004), he was cast as the popular character "Ronon Dex" in the TV series "Stargate: Atlantis" (2004), which achieved a cult-like following. In 2010, he appeared in the Emmy-nominated HBO series "Game of Thrones" (2011) playing the Dothraki King, "Khal Drogo". To illustrate to the producers he was Khal Drogo, he performed the Haka, a traditional war dance of the Maori of New Zealand. The audition was with the same casting director who was casting the titular role in the reboot of Conan the Barbarian (2011). Four weeks after he was cast as the popular Robert E. Howard character, he began shooting in Bulgaria. His approach, like the filmmakers, was to pull from the eight decades of comics and stories as well as the Frank Frazetta images rather than the hugely popular 1982 movie.

Jason has a production company, "Pride of Gypsies", in which he is expanding his career from actor to filmmaker. He has directed a couple of short films and is working on his feature film debut "Road to Paloma" which is pulled from a series of stories he's been developing over the years which he calls the Brown Bag Diaries: Ridin' the Blinds in B Minor (2010).

Jason lives with actress Lisa Bonet with whom he has two children: Lola and Nakoa-Wolf.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Keith Simanton

Spouse

Lisa Bonet

(15 November 2007 - present) 2 children

Trivia

Won the 1999 "Hawaii's Model of the Year."

Participated in the "Governor's Fashion Show, " and "Liberty House" fashion show.

Hosted the 1999 "Miss Teen Hawaii USA" contest.

Enjoys rock and ice climbing, mountain biking, snowboarding, long board skateboarding and roller hockey. Spends his free time on Buddhist studies.

In his mid-teens he became the youngest lifeguard in the history of the Gulf Coast.

Proposed to girlfriend Simmone Mackinnon, in Hawaii, in June 2004.

Nephew of famed surfer Brian L. Keaulana.

Was engaged to Simmone Mackinnon from June 2004 until mid-2006.

He and Lisa Bonet welcomed their first child, a daughter, born on 23 July 2007; named Lola Iolani Momoa.

Jason Momoa and his girlfriend, Lisa Bonet, welcomed their second child, a boy named Nakoa-Wolf, in mid-December, 2008.

On November 15, 2008, Momoa was attacked with a broken beer glass in West Hollywood, California. According to the APNews article, 140 stitches and subsequent reconstructive surgery were required.

He shares one middle name, Namakaeha, with his father.

His father was Native Hawaiian and his mother was of German, Irish and Native American ancestry.

In "Stargate: Atlantis: Epiphany (#2.12)" (2005), co-star David Hewlett calls Jason's character "Conan", who Jason would later play in the "Conan" remake, Conan the Barbarian (2011).

Personal Quotes

I was 19 and folding T-shirts in a surf shop. And I got chosen out of 1,300 people to play a leading role on 'Baywatch Hawaii'. I didn't even know how to act. It took me five years to get an agent after [that]. No one would take me seriously after 'Baywatch'. I lived in the shadow of that for a long time.