Antonio Te Maioha | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1 February 1970 |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1998–present |
Antonio Te Maioha (born 1 February 1970) is a television and film actor from New Zealand. He came to international prominence playing a gladiator Barca, the Beast of Carthage, in the television drama Spartacus: Blood and Sand and its prequel Spartacus: Gods of the Arena . [1]
Te Maioha was born in Auckland on 1 February 1970, and was raised in Hastings in the Hawke's Bay Region of the North Island of New Zealand. [1] His father was of Maori descent through both the Ngapuhi tribe, the largest in New Zealand, and the Waikato tribe, also known as the "Tainui" or "Waikato-Tainui." [1]
Antonio Te Maioha started his career as a street performer before gaining a place at the Toi Whakaari Drama School in 1992. He graduated with a Bachelor of Performing Arts (Acting) in 2005. [2] He went on to work with a Maori theatre project run by actor Jim Moriarty and was in the cast of Waiora , touring New Zealand, Hawaii and Britain. [3]
One of Antonio Te Maioha's first significant television roles was in 1998 playing Boraxis in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys followed by guest roles in Xena: Warrior Princess and Legend of the Seeker , a weekly television series based on The Sword of Truth novels by Terry Goodkind." He has also appeared in other New Zealand-based television productions, including Shortland Street and The Lost World . Te Maioha has also had roles in several films, including Te Tangata Whai Rawa O Weneti and a short film called Taua (War Party)" [1] and the 2000 film Feathers of Peace (Ngati Tama Warrior) directed by Barry Barclay. [4]
Te Maioha has come to international attention through his supporting role as the gladiator Barca in the television drama Spartacus: Blood and Sand [3] and its prequel Spartacus: Gods of the Arena . [4] Nicknamed the "Beast of Carthage", Barca is the bodyguard and hitman of a gladiator owner named Batiatus. [5] Several episodes into the show, he is shown to be in a homosexual relationship with a slave boy named Pietros. [6] He is eventually murdered when Pietros is tricked into revealing damning evidence about Barca.
In 2016 he was cast in a minor role of a Maori Warrior in Zoolander 2 .
Antonio Te Maioha is married and lives in the town of Raglan on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island.
Active in local environmentalism, he has hosted a Sustainable Futures Forum in Waikato that brought around 80 people to discuss a variety of environmental issues. [7] He has also publicly discussed his personal involvement and Raglan's leadership in recycling, citing the accomplishments of a local organization called Xtreme Waste. [8] Te Maioha is uncomfortable with being labeled as a "greenie," saying that he is just doing "stuff everybody could" and that being given such a label means that other people will "write you off...instead of actually listening to what’s being said or applying changes in their own lives." [7]
The Invasion of the Waikato became the largest and most important campaign of the 19th-century New Zealand Wars. Hostilities took place in the North Island of New Zealand between the military forces of the colonial government and a federation of Māori tribes known as the Kingitanga Movement. The Waikato is a territorial region with a northern boundary somewhat south of the present-day city of Auckland. The campaign lasted for nine months, from July 1863 to April 1864. The invasion was aimed at crushing Kingite power and also at driving Waikato Māori from their territory in readiness for occupation and settlement by European colonists. The campaign was fought by a peak of about 14,000 Imperial and colonial troops and about 4,000 Māori warriors drawn from more than half the major North Island tribal groups.
Tainui is a tribal waka confederation of New Zealand Māori iwi. The Tainui confederation comprises four principal related Māori iwi of the central North Island of New Zealand: Hauraki, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Raukawa and Waikato. There are other Tainui iwi whose tribal areas lay outside the traditional Tainui boundaries – Ngāi Tai in the Auckland area, Ngāti Raukawa ki Te Tonga and Ngāti Toa in the Horowhenua, Kapiti region, and Ngāti Rārua and Ngāti Koata in the northern South Island.
Waikato is a local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipa District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton City, as well as Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the northern King Country, much of the Taupō District, and parts of Rotorua District. It is governed by the Waikato Regional Council.
Raglan is a small beachside town located 48 km west of Hamilton, New Zealand on State Highway 23. It is known for its surfing, and volcanic black sand beaches.
Tukoroirangi "Tuku" Morgan is a New Zealand Māori politician and former broadcaster.
Aotea Harbour is a settlement and smallest of three large natural inlets in the Tasman Sea coast of the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located between Raglan Harbour to the north and Kawhia Harbour to the south, 30 kilometres southwest of Hamilton.
The Māori King Movement, called the Kīngitanga in Māori, is a movement that arose among some of the Māori iwi (tribes) of New Zealand in the central North Island in the 1850s, to establish a role similar in status to that of the monarch of the British colonists, as a way of halting the alienation of Māori land. The Māori monarch technically operates in a non-constitutional capacity with no legal or judicial power within the New Zealand government, but nonetheless, is a major political and cultural figure in the country for many of its 5 million people, wielding significant lobbying power and mana. Reigning monarchs retain the position of paramount chief of several iwi and wield some power over these, especially within Tainui.
Pōtatau Te Wherowhero was a Māori warrior, leader of the Waikato iwi, the first Māori King and founder of the Te Wherowhero royal dynasty. He was first known just as Te Wherowhero and took the name Pōtatau after he became king in 1858. As disputes over land grew more severe Te Wherowhero found himself increasingly at odds with the Government and its policies.
Waikato Tainui, Waikato or Tainui is a group of Māori iwi based in Waikato Region, in the western central region of New Zealand's North Island. It is part of the larger Tainui confederation of Polynesian settlers who arrived to New Zealand on the Tainui waka. The tribe is named after the Waikato River, which plays a large part in its history and culture.
Peter David Broughton, generally known as Rawiri Paratene, is a New Zealand stage and screen actor, director and writer. He is known for his acting roles in Whale Rider (2002) and The Insatiable Moon (2010).
Hauraki-Waikato is a New Zealand parliamentary Māori electorate first established for the 2008 election. It largely replaced the Tainui electorate. Nanaia Mahuta of the Labour Party, formerly the MP for Tainui, became MP for Hauraki-Waikato in the 2008 general election and was re-elected in 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2020.
Angeline Ngahina Greensill is a New Zealand Māori political rights campaigner, academic and leader.
Spartacus: Blood and Sand is the first season of American television series Spartacus, which premiered on Starz on January 22, 2010. The series was inspired by the historical figure of Spartacus, a Thracian gladiator who from 73 to 71 BC led a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Executive producers Steven S. DeKnight and Robert Tapert focused on structuring the events of Spartacus' obscure early life leading up to the beginning of historical records.
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena is a television miniseries broadcast by American cable TV Starz, as a prequel to Spartacus, which premiered January 21, 2011. The series follows the character Gannicus, the first gladiator representing Lentulus Batiatus to become Champion of Capua. Cast members and characters reprised from the original series include John Hannah as Batiatus, Lucy Lawless as Lucretia, Peter Mensah as Oenomaus, Nick E. Tarabay as Ashur, Lesley-Ann Brandt as Naevia, Antonio Te Maioha as Barca, and Manu Bennett as Crixus.
Xtreme Zero Waste is a non-profit organization dedicated to recycling and based in the town of Raglan, New Zealand. In 2014 it was rebranded from Xtreme Waste. According to its mission statement, its goal is to create a waste management system for the Raglan/Whaingaroa community in which none of the trash would be stored in landfills.
Spartacus is an American television series produced in New Zealand that premiered on Starz on January 22, 2010, and concluded on April 12, 2013. The fiction series was inspired by the historical figure of Spartacus, a Thracian gladiator who from 73 to 71 BC led a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic departing from Capua. Executive producers Steven S. DeKnight and Robert Tapert focused on structuring the events of Spartacus' obscure early life leading up to the beginning of historical records.
Te Ākau is a small farming settlement in the North Island of New Zealand, located 62 km (39 mi) north west of Hamilton, 39 km (24 mi) south west of Huntly, 45 km (28 mi) south of Port Waikato and 47 km (29 mi), or 19 km (12 mi) by ferry and road, north of Raglan. It has a hall and a school.
Waingaro is a rural community in the Waikato District and Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island, on the banks of the Waingaro River, where it is fed by a hot spring.
Rakatāura, also known as Hape, is a legendary Polynesian navigator and a progenitor of many Māori iwi. Born in Hawaiki, Rakatāura was the senior tohunga (priest/navigator) who led the Tainui migratory canoe to New Zealand. Rakatāura is associated with stories involving the Manukau Harbour, the Te Tō Waka and the Waikato. Many place names in Tāmaki Makaurau and the Waikato region reference Rakatāura, or are described in oral traditions as being named by Rakatāura.
Tearepa Kahi, also known as Te Arepa Kahi, is a New Zealand film director and former actor of Ngāti Paoa and Waikato Tainui descent. Kahi is best known for the 2013 drama Mt. Zion starring Stan Walker, and the Pātea Māori Club documentary Poi E: The Story of a Song (2016).
