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Joseph Motiki

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Joseph Motiki.

Joseph "Joe" Frederick Motiki is a Canadian television host and performer.

Early life

Motiki was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario after his parents emigrated from their native South Africa to live in Canada. He grew up in the Borough of East York and attended high school at East York Collegiate Institute. He was an honours student who was active in athletics, and was president of the student government. Motiki enrolled at Ryerson University and graduated from their Radio and Television Arts program.

Career

While attending school, he beat out 350 hopefuls to become the host of What, a late night phone-in show for youth on TVOntario. The pilot episode aired on May 30, 1994, and the show was broadcast live on Tuesday nights starting September 27, 1994, for one season. Dealing with issues related to current events and popular culture, What was nominated for the 1995 Gemini Award for Best Youth Program in Canada.[1]

In March 1995, Motiki became co-host of The tvokids Crawlspace, TVOntario's after school block of children's programs, alongside Patty Sullivan and Kevin Brauch. Three months later Motiki officially replaced Brauch, who left to host other shows on TVO. Patty and Joe appeared in live interstitial breaks between shows such as Art Attack, Arthur (TV series), The Magic School Bus, and Bill Nye the Science Guy. During these segments they would read viewer mail, promote TV shows, and perform a wide array of original characters. Motiki spent four years on TVOKids, appearing at live events in Ontario and helping the show achieve its highest ratings ever or since.[2] He retired from the Crawlspace on May 30, 1999.

Pursuing new projects, Motiki continued to host various programs and live events. He also started voice acting in numerous animated series. His first was Crashbox on HBO, playing the digitally enhanced stop motion character Professor Rocket, both on the show and in a cycle of shorts entitled Who Knew?. He then provided the voice of Rocky Canyon for the TV series Rescue Heroes, subsequently voicing Rocky Canyon for the Fisher-Price action figures and the 2003 film Rescue Heroes: The Movie. He voiced Metabee on the anime series Medabots which aired on FOX. He also played the part of South African data raider Ozubo Monduma/Conjureman, who is recruited alongside five other international beta testers to save Earth in the web series 7th Portal, produced by Stan Lee Media.

In 2002 Motiki became host of the updated version of the teen quiz show Reach for the Top, the high school competition for the provincial SchoolReach trivia championship. He was unable to host the third season due to a scheduling conflict and was replaced by Nicole Stamp. That same year Motiki became host of POV Sports on CBC, a showcase for professional and amateur athletes and sports. During his two seasons on POV Sports, Motiki travelled across North America to cover stories and events, including the Gravity Games, the 91st Grey Cup, the historic 2003 Heritage Classic from Commonwealth Stadium, and X Games IX in Los Angeles, California. He also worked with CBC Sports on the 90th Grey Cup broadcast, the 2003 Canada Games in Bathurst/Campbellton, New Brunswick, and the IAAF World Youth Championships in Athletics from Sherbrooke, Quebec where he interviewed current 100m and 200m world record holder Usain Bolt.

Sports From The Edge is an award-winning documentary that Motiki hosted in 2004, produced by Keith MacNeill of CBC North. The documentary follows native athlete Steve Amarualik from his training in Resolute Bay, Nunavut, to his performance at the 2004 Arctic Winter Games in Fort McMurray, Alberta; it was honoured at the prestigious Columbus International Film Festival. He travelled to Asia, Australia, and Europe to host the travel show Get Outta Town on Encore with Barbara Mamabolo, a TV series about how young people live around the world. Motiki also served three times as host of the provincial Junior and Senior Championships of the Spelling Bee of Canada in 2006 and served three times as host of the Miss World Canada event. In the 2007-2008 TV season he hosted the YTV game show Game Gurus, and in 2008 he shot a pilot for the CBC documentary unit called Life Lab.

Motiki played constituency assistant Trevor Jones in the comedy series She's the Mayor[3] for VisionTV, with Janet-Laine Green, Scott Wentworth, Denis Akiyama, Tonya Lee Williams, and Colin Mochrie. The series, about a retired school principal who becomes mayor of the fictional town of Fairfax, was Vision's first original production and the broadcaster's second-most watched TV series during its run.[4] He also acted in TV shows such as Degrassi: The Next Generation and Wingin' It; films Blindness and Phantom Punch; and animated series including Life's a Zoo.tv,[5] which won the 2009 Gemini Award for Best Animated Series,[6] and Pirates: Adventures in Art.[7]

He has made numerous appearances on projects across various platforms. Between 2002 and 2009 he was a frequent guest on the sports talk program Off the Record with Michael Landsberg[8] on TSN. He also played himself on the Canadian web series The Casting Room with its creator Naomi Snieckus, and was a guest on the online podcast Deekast[9] with Derek Veenhoff, where he discussed numerous subjects including his career beginnings at TVOntario.

Recently, Motiki hosted the Food Network production Ice Cold Cash[10] where he pretended to be an ice cream vendor who would surprise customers with questions about food and award them cash prizes for correct answers. The show can currently be seen on GameTV. He was the in-stadium Athletics host for both the 2015 Pan American Games and 2015 Parapan American Games; events were held at York Lions Stadium, which was known as CIBC Athletics Stadium during the Games.

He can be heard voicing the character Ryan on the Cartoon Network series Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race. He is currently hosting the live show CSP Live[11] from the producers of Canada's Smartest Person. The Facebook-only broadcast gives viewers the opportunity to compete interactively in challenges based on the Theory of multiple intelligences presented to them by Motiki.

References

  1. ^ Joseph Motiki official Facebook page
  2. ^ Joseph Motiki website
  3. ^ She's The Mayor website
  4. ^ Joseph Motiki website
  5. ^ Life's A Zoo.tv website
  6. ^ Reuters News
  7. ^ Pirates web page
  8. ^ Joseph Motiki official Facebook page
  9. ^ DEEKAST on Soundcloud
  10. ^ Ice Cold Cash web page
  11. ^ Canada's Smartest Person Facebook page
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