Jay Laga'aia didn't want his children to be performers but five followed in his footsteps
Jay Laga'aia (centre) with his two sons Iosefa (left) and Tana (right). (ABC News: Keana Naughton)
Jay Laga'aia didn't encourage his children to become performers. However, five out of the eight have chosen to follow in his footsteps on stage and screen.
"It's the last thing I wanted them to do," Laga'aia said in a sit-down with ABC News, joined by two of his sons.
"I've been doing this 42 years and it's something that I love doing. It is my calling.
"But you never wish that upon your own children because you know how difficult it is.
"But at the end of the day, somebody said to me, 'if this is their forever job, then who am I to stand in their way?'
"As a father and a performer, I suppose, I am very proud of my kids. As a parent, I'm sort of disappointed, because they need to get a proper job," he quipped.
Disney announced earlier this year that 17-year-old Catherine will star in the live action Moana due out in 2026; Iosefa, 25, is currently on stage in Hamilton and is about to start rehearsals for Hadestown; 23-year-old Tana is in Jesus Christ Superstar; Georgia, 19, starred in Dear Evan Hansen and 15-year-old Bella was a soloist in the 2024 School Spectacular last weekend.
Laga'aia himself has just come off a year-long tour playing Vince Fontaine in Grease the Musical and is now playing a policeman called Peter in Heartbreak Choir, which he describes as "a great local piece of writing". It celebrates the healing power of music and is currently showing at the Ensemble theatre in Kirribilli.
Laga'aia's credits include Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith (2005), Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones (2002), Daybreakers (2009), Home and Away, Water Rats and even Play School.
Laga'aia had ambitions to join the All Blacks
Born in Auckland, New Zealand, it looked like his career might have been very different in the early days.
Jay Laga'aia did not encourage his children to take up performing, but five of them have followed in his footsteps. (ABC News: Keana Naughton)
"I was a rugby representative, and I thought I was going to be an All Black," Laga'aia said.
"And then I broke my shoulder. And then my mother, [there's] nothing like a Polynesian mother who says to the coach, 'no, he's not coming back'.
"And I realised really quickly that I was playing in an era where you had future All Blacks and you weren't as good as you thought you were.
"And so, I started playing in bands when I was about 18, and then fell into theatre."
Laga'aia answered an advertisement in the local paper in Auckland in 1983, auditioned for the musical Sweet Charity, and got into the chorus.
He was "blown away" watching the other performers during rehearsals and had an epiphany, he says.
"I realised I don't know what this is, but I'm going to chase it,"he said.
Jay Laga'aia stars in The Heartbreak Choir currently showing at Ensemble Theatre in Kirribilli. (Supplied: Prudence Upton)
Laga'aia says while he hasn't taken up diversity in the performing arts as a crusade, he does believe in leading by example and showing others it can be done.
"I always feel like my job is to be the person up on stage that allows that other individual, that other person that doesn't fit into the mould, to look up and go, 'he looks like me,'" Laga'aia said.
"It's not only Polynesians in general, it's those who don't fit into the mould to go 'You are allowed to come and play in our sandbox. You're allowed to imagine. You're allowed to dream.'
"And I think it's really important for performers from a diverse background, from various backgrounds to be seen, purely because it allows us then to go 'we can be part and parcel of this narrative.'
"And I think when you look at our televisions, it doesn't represent that. We don't see ourselves on television.
"We see ourselves in theatre a lot more now, because they've become more diverse and a lot more characters are now played by different individuals because we are now thinking outside the square."
'Terrified' of nepotism label
Son Tana has a playful take on his foray into performance, saying his Instagram bio means something different to what people might think at first glance.
"The quote is 'Putting the '-tism' in 'nepotism' since 2001" and it's because I'm also autistic, and so it's the autism into nepotism," Tana said.
"[But] it would be remiss of us not to acknowledge that having dad be our father, it means that we do know somebody in almost every audition room we walk into.
"And I feel like it would be foolish of us to deny that we have that.
"It doesn't stop them from saying no when we audition. I've definitely not booked my fair share of jobs, but I will say it is a hand to help you through the doorway 100 per cent."
Tana Laga'aia is playing Peter in Jesus Christ Superstar which is on at the Capitol theatre in Sydney till January 26. Pictured here with Mahalia Barnes. (Supplied: Jeff Busby)
Laga'aia is quick to point out that his children are trained musicians who have the skills to back up their trajectories, Tana backing that up.
"I played seven or eight different instruments through high school," Tana said.
"I fell into musical theatre that way, and … just never looked back. [I] realised that that's kind of where my heart was, and then it seemed like nothing else was ever gonna fill that hole."
Brother Iosefa says the nepotism label has always "terrified" him.
"I want as few of my accomplishments tied to that name [Laga'aia] as possible," he said.
"I want to be let into the room off the back of my own work.
"And so, my drive from day one has always been, 'be the best person in the room. And if you enter that room and you aren't the best person in that room, do what you need to do to become the best person in that room.'"
Hamilton is showing at Sydney's Lyric Theatre till January 25. It's the second iteration of Hamilton Australia. Iosefa was also part of the original cast locally. (Supplied: Daniel Boud)
Laga'aia adds: "I think most recently, when people asked about my daughter [Catherine] who's working overseas [on Moana], they went, 'Oh, because she's a Nepo baby.' I went, 'if she was a Nepo baby, don't you think I'd be in the movie?'"
Family owes its success to 'superwoman'
If there's one thing that's for sure it's that behind every great man and his eight children is a "superwoman" who sees each of their shows "several times over" and that's Laga'aia's wife Sandra.
"Behind every successful performer, there's a wife going, 'how much is that?'"Laga'aia said.
"We want to take this opportunity to acknowledge their mother as well.
"She's a vice principal at Balmain High, my wife Sandy, and she's the hand that rocks the cradle.
"She is the one that chases them down, makes sure that they've returned auditions, all of them, including myself, and it would be remiss of us to go, 'Well, you know our success is up to us.'
"Our success really isn't. We're the ones up the front, but there's always somebody going 'come on, move forward, speak up.'"
The Heartbreak Choir is at the Ensemble Theatre till January 12, Jesus Christ Superstar is playing at the Capitol theatre until January 26 before heading to Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane, and Hamilton is on till January 25 at Sydney's Lyric Theatre.