Temuera Morrison

 ( 1960 Births ) 

In 1994, he received attention for his role as the violently abusive Māori husband Jake "The Muss" Heke in Once Were Warriors, a film adaptation of Alan Duff's novel Once Were Warriors. The film became the most successful local release in New Zealand, and sold to many countries. The role won him international acclaim and he received the award for best male performance in a dramatic role at the 1994 New Zealand Film and Television Awards. He reprised the role in the sequel, What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?, for which he received the Best Actor award from the New Zealand Film Awards. Morrison said in 2010 that he felt typecast by the role, to the point that it was "a millstone round my neck". In 1996, he appeared in the Pamela Anderson film Barb Wire.

He has appeared in supporting roles in (1997) and The Beautiful Country (2004). In 2005, Morrison became the host of the talk show The Tem Show on New Zealand television.

In the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours, Morrison was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to drama.

He started writing an autobiography in 2009, which he hoped would inspire others to "reach for the stars".

He released his debut album, Tem, through Sony Music Entertainment NZ in late November 2014. It consists of covers of songs that his father, and uncle Howard Morrison, had performed at local venues when he was growing up.

Morrison has since portrayed Jango Fett and his clones in several Star Wars video games, all produced by LucasArts. He played the clone commando "Delta Squad" in (2005), voiced all the troopers in (2004), and voiced both Jango and Boba Fett in its sequel, (2005). Morrison reprised his role as Jango in (2002), a game centered around the character, and (2005), along with his clones, but was uncredited in the latter. He voiced Boba in the 2006 game , and DICE's Star Wars Battlefront (2015) and Battlefront II (2017), the latter of which were produced by Electronic Arts.

Morrison physically portrayed Boba Fett for the first time in the second season of The Mandalorian (2020). In the show, Morrison portrays an aged, weathered version of the character. Morrison's Fett has heavy scars on his face, and wears dark robes before reclaiming and restoring his armor. Morrison says that with the physically worn appearance, he adjusted his voice to be more gravelly, as if Boba's vocal cords were affected by his past traumas. With the role, Morrison was also able to bring a bit of his own Māori culture to Fett's portrayal. In an interview with The New York Times, he said that he "wanted to bring that kind of spirit and energy, which we call wairua, to" and used that influence in his on-screen fight scenes, both in the hand-to-hand combat and while wielding weapons.

In 2020, a spinoff of the series The Mandalorian was announced, titled The Book of Boba Fett. Morrison reprises his role as Boba Fett, following Fett's life after the events of the 1983 film Return of the Jedi. The series premiered on 29 December 2021.

In 2022, Morrison made a cameo appearance as a homeless veteran clone trooper in the Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series, and voiced Rex and other clones in an episode of Ahsoka.

In 2008, he appeared on New Zealand skit comedy television show Pulp Sport, in a sketch that made fun of him being cloned.

Morrison has appeared in several DC Comics-related films. In the 2011 film Green Lantern, he portrayed Abin Sur. In 2018 he played lighthouse keeper Tom Curry, the father of the title character, in Aquaman. Morrison reprised the role in The Flash, released in 2023, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which released in December 2023.

Morrison also provided the voice of Moana's father, Chief Tui, in the 2016 animated Disney film of the same name. He reprised the role in the 2024 sequel, and also provided Tui's singing voice instead of Christopher Jackson.

• Betros, Chris (17 July 2006). "Once a warrior, Temuera Morrison now New Zealand's best known film star". Japan Today. Retrieved 20 February 2007.