Mario Gaoa

Mario Gaoa is best known for voicing the characters of Sione Tapili and God in the animated series Bro Town, which he also co-wrote. “In the writing process we weren’t thinking about anybody else,” Gaoa told the NZ Herald in 2009. “The characters had to be funny and if we laughed, it was a pretty good indicator. We had a running battle with the network as far as scripts go but they let us run with crazy things we probably wouldn’t have got away with elsewhere.”

Gaoa grew up in Auckland’s Mount Roskill. He attended Balmoral Intermediate School where he met fellow Naked Samoan Shimpal Lelisi.
As a Naked Samoan, Gaoa has appeared on stage in Dawn Raids, Naked Samoans Talk About Their Knives, Naked Samoans Go to Hollywood and Go Home.

Gaoa had a role in big-screen hit Sione’s Wedding as Eugene, and has performed in various television shows including Hercules. He has also directed for magazine shows Tagata Pasifika and Mai Time.

More recently Gaoa had an ongoing role as self-styled ladykiller Malepe Fa’auigaese, in madcap James Griffin comedy Diplomatic Immunity.

In 2010, after working with his fellow Naked Samoans over five seasons of Bro Town, Gaoa and many of the team reunited for sketch show Radiradira.

Mario is also a talented voiceover artist, singer and radio DJ.