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JoelTobeck

  • Actor
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Actor Joel Tobeck had early starring roles in kidult series Strangers and Niki Caro's The Summer the Queen Came. In 1997 he won his first NZ Film and TV award, for the movie version of Topless Women Talk About Their Lives. Tobeck has gone on to play bad guys in This is Not My Life and American series Sons of Anarchy. His long CV also includes three seasons of Australian drama Tangle, and Kiwi miniseries Jonah and Black Hands.

Screenography

2025 As: Wayne Film
Spartacus: House of Ashur
2025 As: Pompey Series
2024 As: Alistair Film
Sweet Tooth
2021 - 2024 As: JamesThacker Series
2020 As: Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Tremaine Television

Biography

Asked the key to success in the New Zealand screen industry, actor Joel Tobeck will tell you about "immersion". From learning about acting "by osmosis" as an usher at Auckland’s Mercury Theatre, to voicing radio adverts for eight hours a day at bFM, and auditioning eight times for a part in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys before winning it with "this crazy read — I just went for it"...Tobeck is known for his commitment.

Awards

2021 New Zealand Television Awards
Best Actor: for Black Hands

“I don't have classic good looks . . . but then I'd rather play the off-centre roles. I'm quite happy playing a drug addict or the bastard in the wheelchair.”

Joel Tobeck

Related images

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Joel Tobeck and (in the background) Matt Chamberlain in whodunnit Alibi.
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Joel TobeckDominic Ona-Ariki and bridge, in the first episode of One Lane Bridge.
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Joel Tobeck as the mysterious arrival in Niki Caro's 1993 short film Sure to Rise.
Photo courtesy of the NZ Film Commission
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Joel Tobeck as Miles, in a scene from 1992 teleplay The Summer the Queen Came, written and directed by Niki Caro.
Photo appears courtesy of the NZ Film Commission
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Joel Tobeck as Miles and Lee-Jane Forman as Emily in Niki Caro's The Summer the Queen Came.
Photo appears courtesy of the NZ Film Commission
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The family at the centre of 1992 teleplay The Summer the Queen Came, written and directed by Niki Caro.
Photo appears courtesy of the New Zealand Film Commission.