Joe Motiki

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (April 2008)

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

Motiki was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario and graduated in 1995 from the Radio & Television Arts program at Ryerson University. While an undergraduate at Ryerson, Motiki beat out 350 hopefuls at an open casting call to become host of What, a late-night phone-in program for youth on TVOntario. The pilot episode aired May 30th, 1994 and the show was broadcast live on Tuesday nights starting September 27th, 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.

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 he 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, Magic School Bus and Bill Nye The Science Guy. During these segments they would run contests, read viewer mail, and performed a wide array of original characters. Motiki spent four years on TVOKids, appearing at live events all over Ontario and helping the show achieve its highest ratings ever or since. He retired from the Crawlspace on May 30th, 1999.

Pursuing new projects, Motiki continued to host various programs and live events, and also started lending his voice to numerous animated series. His first was Crashbox on HBO, playing the digitally-enhanced stop motion character Professor Rocket on the show, and in a cycle of shorts titled Who Knew?. He then provided the voice of rookie mountain climber Rocky Canyon for three seasons of the hit cartoon series Rescue Heroes; he subsequently voiced Rocky for the Fisher Price action figures, and 2003's Rescue Heroes: The Movie. He played the manic and stubborn Metabee on the popular anime hit Medabots, which had its inaugural American run on Fox for two seasons. He also played the part of South African data raider Ozubo Monduma/Conjureman, who is recruited along with five other international teenagers to save Earth in 7th Portal, produced by Stan Lee Media.

In 2002 Motiki became host of the updated version of the classic teen quiz show Reach For The Top, the high school competition for the provincial SchoolReach championship and the right to move on to the Canadian finals of the popular trivia contest. He was unable to host the third season due to a scheduling mix-up and was replaced by current host Nicole Stamp. That same year Motiki became host of POV Sports on CBC, a showcase for amateur and professional athletes as well as a wide array of sports and activities. During his two seasons on POV, Motiki travelled across North America to cover stories and events, including the Gravity Games, the 91st Grey Cup, the historic Heritage Classic from Commonwealth Stadium and X Games IX in Los Angeles, CA. 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.

Sports From The Edge is an award-winning documentary that Motiki hosted in 2004, produced by Keith MacNeill of CBC North. The doc 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. Highlighting traditional native games and what life is like north of the Arctic tree line, Edge was honoured at the prestigious Columbus International Film Festival. Motiki also served three times as host of the provincial Junior and Senior Championships of the Spelling Bee of Canada^[1] ^[2], most recently in 2006.

His list of acting credits include appearances in several Disney MOWs and Fire Serpent; roles in series including Doc (TV series), Wild Card (TV series), and Degrassi: The Next Generation; supporting roles in the 2008 feature films Blindness (film) and Phantom Punch.

Currently, Motiki is hosting the travel show Get Outta Town^[3] on WAM! and the family game show Game Gurus on YTV.^[4]. He also makes regular appearances on the panel of Off The Record (TV series). Current animated roles include Shadow on Spider Riders, Ugger on Magi-Nation (TV Series) and Madman on Urban Vermin.