… hails from New Zealand. Pana Hema Taylor (or Hema-Taylor), who I recently watched in the first season of the New Zealand detective series The Brokenwood Mysteries, in which he plays Jared Morehu. The man in a p.r. head shot:
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Hema Taylor has a sturdy physique, a powerful but attractive face, and a strong physical presence – definitely a hunk.
On the show, from Wikipedia:
The Brokenwood Mysteries is a New Zealand detective drama television series that premiered on Prime in 2014. The program is set in a fictitious New Zealand town of Brokenwood and was filmed in the greater Auckland region.
Synopsis: Detective Inspector Mike Shepherd [Neill Rea] is sent from Auckland to Brokenwood to assist the local police with a possible murder investigation. Brokenwood is a seemingly quiet country town, where Shepherd, who has an unconventional approach to his task, works with local Detective Constable Kristin Sims [Fern Sutherland], who is precise and efficient at her job, to solve murder mysteries. As the series progresses the working relationship between the two moves from rocky to functional as the two get to appreciate each other’s talents. [Sims is the imperturble one, Shepherd the volatile one.]
… Pana Hema Taylor [plays] Jared Morehu, Mike’s Maori neighbor. As a local who has many friends and interests, he often finds himself involved in the murder investigations.
And on the actor, from a Wikipedia article that refers to him by his first name throughout:
Pana [Lawrence] Hema Taylor (born 1989) is a New Zealand television actor of Māori heritage, best known for his roles in Spartacus, The Brokenwood Mysteries [as Jared] and Westside.
Pana was first seen on TV in 2007 on the Māori language educational series Whanau. He has since worked on various New Zealand feature films including Boy and Kawa. Pana is best known for his work in the Starz television series Spartacus: Vengeance and Spartacus: War of the Damned, playing the role of the Syrian rebel Nasir. In 2014 he was cast as Mana in the New Zealand action film The Dead Lands.
He is currently starring as Jared in The Brokenwood Mysteries and as Bert in Westside.
A (mostly) shirtless shot of Hema Taylor in costume in Spartacus:
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In Brokenwood, his character Jared is a strongly masculine strongly working-class character, quite amiable (easy-going, with a ready smile and a wide circle of friends), able in many ways (some of them surprising: in the second episode he turns out to be a talented wine-taster). A pleasure to watch. (And listen for the Kiwi vowels.)
