New Zealand Week: Day 5: Star Profiles: Temuera Morrison

Temuera Morrison

Temuera Morrison is one of New Zealand's biggest stars, known at home and abroad as an amazing actor capable of handling everything from comedy to intense drama to action with ease.  In a career that has thus far spanned over 20 years, he has proven himself a powerful performer who can enfuse almost any role with true feeling and heart.


Born in 1960 in Rotorua, the son of Hana and Leslie, Morrison comes from an entertainment family.  His father was a musician, as was his paternal uncle Sir Henry Morrison.  His sister Taini was a renowned leader of the Māori cultural performance movement.

As a young man, Morrison trained in drama and took a role on the now-defunct soap opera Close to Home.  His first foray into film came in 1988 with a role in the action movie Never Say Die.  He continued to appear in films for the next few years, also returning to the world of soap operas in the early 1990s with a role as on Shortland Street.

Morrison with Rena Owen in Once
Were Warriors.

Morrison hit his stride in 1994 when he took on the role of Jake "the Muss" Heke in the film adaptation of author Alan Duff's acclaimed first novel Once Were Warriors.  The film gained him international attention and he earned a Best Male Performance in a Dramatic Role award at the New Zealand Film and Television Awards.  He would reprise the part of Jake in 1999's adaptation of What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?, earning a Best Actor award from the New Zealand Film Awards.

Morrison as Jango Fett in
Star Wars.

Roles in films produced outside of his native New Zealand began to roll in, including a part in 1997's Speed 2: Cruise Control and 1998's Six Days, Seven Nights.  Perhaps his greatest recognition came in 2002 with the role of bounty hunter Jango Fett (and an army of clone soldiers) in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.  He has since lent his voice and likeness to several Star Wars video games and comics, as well as redubbing the lines of the character Boba Fett (Jango's clone/son) in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

Another venture into television came in 2005 with a talk show entitled The Tem Show.  In 2008 he reprized his role as Dr. Hone Ropata on Shortland Street.  He has continued in films in New Zealand and will, in 2011, continue his work in the sci-fi genre when he appears in the role of Green Lantern Corps member Abin Sur in the film Green Lantern.