Matatia Foa'i (born October 29, 1990) is a New Zealand actor, screenwriter, music producer, vocalist, and percussionist of Polynesian and British descent. He is best known as a member of the family band Te Vaka, which is known for its contemporary Pacific music. Matatia gained international recognition for his contributions to the soundtrack of Walt Disney's animated film Moana (2016) and Moana 2. In addition to his work with Te Vaka, Matatia has pursued a solo career as an actor and screenwriter.[1]
Matatia is the youngest son of Opetaia Foa'i and Julie Foa'i, born in October 1990 in Auckland, New Zealand[2] and is currently based in Sydney, Australia. His father is the composer, musician, singer and founder of Polynesian band Te Vaka, and his mother is the band's manager.[2] [3] He started his career with Te Vaka at the age of 6, touring 40 countries by the age of 20.[4] [5] He was instrumental in shaping the percussion sound of the band[5] and composed their first log drum track in 2007. This was followed by Te Vaka's all-percussion albums "Te Vaka Beats Vol.1" (2017),"Te Vaka Beats Vol. 2" (2020) and "Te Vaka Beats Vol.3" (2022) for which he wrote and composed all the tracks.[6] [7] In 2018, Matatia collaborated with his sister, Olivia Foa'i, producing her song "My Way". The following year, in 2019, he produced her entire album, Candid,[8] which went on to win three awards in the Pacific Music Awards. The album also gained him a nomination for Best Producer.[9]
Foa'i has been since described as the "Polynesian percussion Maestro" [10] and contributed to the soundtracks of Moana and Moana 2[5] as writer and producer for the track "Tuputupu", co-producer for "Mana Vavau" and "Nuku O Kaiga", and also performed alongside Te Vaka for tracks such as "My Wish For You (Innocent Warrior)" and more.[11] [12] [13]
As well as his musical career he became interested in acting. He completed several acting courses, graduating from Screenwise Screen Acting in 2018.[14] Following this, he appeared in multiple feature films including the 2019 Bilched,[15] ,[16] and continued to work as an actor and screenwriter in the 2020 short film Stuntbot.[17]