You only need to take one look at Jason Momoa to know he's not the type of guy you'd want to cross. At 6"3 tall and built like a brick shithouse, the 37-year-old is an absolute fucking beast.
He is currently starring in Netflix show Frontier, where he plays a half Irish, half Cree outlaw trying to break the fur trade monopoly, but he first made a name for himself starring as Khal Drogo on Game of Thrones.
But by the time he appeared on the HBO show he was 31-year-old, and his life before he was shot into the limelight is almost as intriguing as after he found fame.
Advert
Here's a video detailing his career so far...
Credit: PrideOfGypsies
The Birthing Of A Beast
Born in Hawaii but brought up in Iowa, Jason is the son of a photographer, and, a painter. His father is of Native Hawaiian descent, while his mother is of German, Irish, and Native American ancestry.
Far from what you would expect of characters he plays on screen, as a young man, Momoa travelled extensively, took up pastel painting in Paris, and studied Buddhist teachings in Tibet. He also studied in wildlife biology at Colorado State University.
Despite being raised by a single mother, during his time studying he travelled to Hawaii to reconnect with his father, a decision that would change his life.
In 1998, while living in Hawaii, Momoa was discovered by international designer Takeo Kobayashi, who encouraged his modelling career. A year later he won Hawaii's Model of the Year, which in turn led to him getting his first break on Baywatch Hawaii.
Credit: PA Images
"I got chosen out of 1,300 people to play a leading role on Baywatch Hawaii," he reminisced. "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."
His next big break came in cult TV show Stargate Atlantis, where he played Ronon Dex.
During his time on the sci-fi show, producers insisted he cut his dreadlocks off, only to backtrack on the decision and decide they were too iconic for the character to feature without them.
Such was his dedication to the part that he spent nine hours having the nine pound dreads re-sewn on.
The Beauty And The Beast
In 2005, he began a relationship with Lisa Bonet, best known for playing Denise Huxtable as a teenager on The Cosby Show, and they married in 2007.
Credit: PA Images
"We met through mutual friends," Momoa once told The YBF. "But when I first met her, she didn't know I was a stalker, but I was.
"I was with one of my best friends and when I turned around, and they were going to introduce us, literally like, fireworks.
"She said 'Hi I'm Lisa'. And I said 'Hi, I'm Jason' and I just turn around to my buddy like freaking out. Inside, I was like a little girl but I deepened my voice and tried to pull it together. She definitely makes me shy. It's been an honour."
In 2007 and 2008 the couple welcomed their children, a daughter and a son. Lola Iolani was born in July 2007 and Nakoa-Wolf Manakauapo Namakaeha was born just before Christmas in 2008.
"She's so amazing because I'm such a dipshit," he said speaking to Huffington Post about his wife. "She's an angel. She's amazing. God bless her. She's seeing this one through. I've done a lot of dumb things in my life."
The Beast Of Burden
But it hasn't always been this easy for Momoa. In 2008, he was slashed in the face with a broken beer glass by another customer at the Birds, a Hollywood tavern.
Momoa ended up getting reconstructive surgery and believes the man who fought him was taking part in a 'gang initiation'.
Advert
Credit: PA Images
"It was crazy," he explained to Access Hollywood. "A guy smashed a pint glass in my face. I got a little over 140 stitches in my face. It helped get those mean roles.
"It just doesn't grow there anymore," Momoa said of the white line through his eyebrow hair. I got my wife beforehand, so... if she doesn't like it, too bad. But she likes it."
Simply The Beast
Even though he only featured in Game of Thrones for two series, Khal Drogo made a lasting mark on the show.
The character was tough and brutal but fell deeply in love with his Khaleesi. Momoa made the unusual choice of breaking into a haka during his Game of Thrones audition. The ancestral war cry of the Maori people of New Zealand is typically performed before battle.
The Kiwi national dance was taught to him by his father.
Here he is with a man's tongue. No big deal. Credit: HBO
"I'm half Hawaiian and the haka is a very sacred thing, something your family teaches you - my father taught me," he has previously said.
The actor had a lot of input into the Khal Drogo character. The scene where he pulls out the the tongue of an opponent was Momoa's idea after it actually came to him in a dream.
Advert
It has even been suggested that the Khal could make a return to the screen for the final two series of the show, possibly in a few flashbacks.
In the show the witch Mirri said that Drogo would return to Daenerys "when the sun rises in the west and sets in the east, when the sea goes dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves, when your womb quickens and you bear a living child..." So, although it seems unlikely it could be possible.
Last year he posted a picture of himself posing next to former co-star Kit Harington on Instagram, which heightened rumours of his return. So it looks like we'll just have to wait and see.
The Beast Things Come To Those Who Wait
But it didn't end at Game of Thrones. Having made his mark on TV screens through the HBO show, Momao turned his attention to film, in 2011 he played the lead role in Conan the Barbarian.
But although Momao is notorious for playing 'barbaric' characters, his home life is markedly cultured. Speaking about his time off set, he told Den of Geeks: "I like to read. I don't have a TV. I don't have email. I don't have a phone. I read books, I take care of my children, I play guitar. I love Japanese haiku poetry. I love Charles Baudelaire, biographies, whatever catches my fancy."
Advert
Credit: PA Images
He also directed, produced, wrote and starred in Road to Paloma about a native American who kills his mother's rapist and then goes on the run. His biggest role to date will come in 2018, as he reprised his cameo of Aquaman in Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice and for its very own Aquaman movie.
Jason, you're a top lad, a jam up guy and personally we can't wait for whatever comes next.
Advert
Words James Dawson & Laura Hamilton
Featured Image Credit: HBOTopics: Jason Momoa, Game of Thrones