Jason Momoa's Real Name: Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa

Quick answer: Jason Momoa's real name is Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa. He was born on August 1, 1979, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Real name and early life

Encyclopædia Britannica and Biography.com both list his full name as Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa. Joseph is his first given name, which he shares with his father, Joseph Momoa, a painter. He has always worked under his middle name, Jason. Namakaeha is a Hawaiian middle name.

According to Britannica, his parents divorced about six months after he was born, and his mother, photographer Coni Lemke, moved with him to Norwalk, Iowa, where he finished elementary and high school. He later moved back to Hawaii to reconnect with his father and enrolled in a marine biology program at the University of Hawaii. At 19 he was discovered by designer Takeo Kobayashi and briefly modeled before landing his first acting job.

Quick facts

• Real name: Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa
• Known as: Jason Momoa
• Born: August 1, 1979, in Honolulu, Hawaii
• Known for: Actor
• Notable work: Baywatch: Hawaii, Stargate: Atlantis, Conan the Barbarian, Game of Thrones
• Sources checked: Britannica, Biography.com

Career highlights

Momoa's first role was a young lifeguard on Baywatch: Hawaii (1999–2001). He went on to play Ronon Dex on Stargate: Atlantis (2005–09) and starred in Conan the Barbarian (2011). His breakout came as the Dothraki warlord Khal Drogo in the first two seasons of HBO's Game of Thrones.

Zack Snyder cast him as Aquaman in 2014. He played the role in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017), led Aquaman (2018), and returned for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023). He also played Duncan Idaho in Dune (2021), the villain Dante Reyes in Fast X (2023), and starred alongside Jack Black in A Minecraft Movie (2025). On television he led Frontier and Apple TV's See. Off screen, he founded Mananalu, a canned-water company focused on reducing plastic waste.

Name notes

The name on screen is simply a shortened form of his legal name: he dropped the first given name, Joseph, and kept Jason. Momoa is his father's family surname. Fan sites often copy names from one another, so we checked this page against Britannica and Biography.com. Where sources disagree, we say so rather than guess. We also leave out middle names, nicknames, and origin stories that we couldn't confirm in a reliable source. A popular claim isn't enough to earn a place on this page if no encyclopedia, official record, or major news outlet backs it up.