Jordi Webber, who plays Kahu Parata on the Australian serial opera Home and Away, may be a rookie, but he has experience in both acting and singing, having had both a boyband and a solo career.
Before joining the Australian serial, Jordi Webber, the actor from Home and Away, had a fast-paced career.
Many viewers will identify the actor as Tane’s cousin Kahu Parata on Home and Away despite his boyband and solo music careers as well as his leading Netflix role.
He joined the cast as the chill surfer this year, but he has also played the roles of Constable Cruz Kingi in the rugby drama series Head High and Jake Morris in the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street.
We’ve looked at Jordi’s diverse career, which he began in music before transitioning to acting and eventually becoming a Netflix star.
Early life
Jordi, who was born in 1994 in Rotorua, New Zealand, began his upbringing in a Mormon home.
Before deciding to pursue acting studies, he had promise as a young man and even accepted modest roles in television commercials.
The New Zealand star enrolled in a Bachelor of Performing Arts programme before being recruited for a music career, diverting him from the acting industry.
Boyband career and solo success
Jordi joined the boyband Titanium in 2012 after winning a contest held by the New Zealand radio station The Edge.
When Jordi was only 18 years old, he formed the all-male music group with Zac Taylor, Andrew Papas, Shaquille Paranihi-Ngauma, Haydn Linsley, and T.K. Paradza.
With their debut single “Come On Home” reaching the top spot right away, the band became an immediate success. The group continued to grow, and they concurrently had three singles in the official New Zealand singles chart.
Jordi chose to remain in New Zealand while the band relocated to the US to make their mark on the US charts in 2013. In 2014, he formally disbanded the group and began a solo music career.
In 2016, Jordi gained support from his fans for his debut single “I’ll Be Loving You” as a solo artist. His second track, “Reasons,” which he followed up with “Love You Forever,” was published to promote suicide awareness.
In addition to releasing songs under his own name, Jordi also performed under the guises of Waazzoo and The Vibes in 2020, releasing an EP under those guises. The following year, his song “Juice and Lemonade” was made public.
Star actor and soap star beginnings
For Jordi, who still regarded acting as his first love, success came in more forms than just music. He was cast as Levi Weston in Power Rangers: Ninja Steel in 2017.
For Jordi, it hasn’t just been action heroes; he also started to move into the soap industry after getting parts in the rugby drama series Head High and the New Zealand soap Shortland Street.
Additionally, Jordi will play the role of the female character’s first love Jack Menna in the Netflix romantic comedy “Choose Love,” which lets viewers choose who the female lead falls for.
The participatory element is incredibly entertaining, he told Stuff magazine. Everyone found it difficult to process all the available possibilities.
As an actor, “Choose Love taught me that I am capable, or even more capable, of being a lead internationally,” he continued. I believe that was a great cool reminder for me to confirm my identity.
Home and Away
Jordi joined Home and Away earlier this year as Tane’s cousin Kahu, and because he already knew several of the Australian soap opera actors, he immediately felt at home.
Jordi noted that the fact that he had already met Ethan Browne’s character Tane made his first day on site easier.
He said to Stuff: “I actually already knew Ethan. I met Ethan when getting up with the guys in Australia since Rob Kipa-Williams and Kawakawa Fox-Reo, who played Tane’s brother Ari and nephew Nikau, respectively, are extremely good friends of mine.
We got along, but I didn’t really know him. And after we started filming, he and I grew close, which is really wonderful.
Viewers of Home and Away have previously seen Kahu make Tane’s life with Felicity challenging. In an interview, Jordi defined his persona as “super free-spirited, like a chilled Mori boy but with some spice.”
He continued, “(The producers) wanted Kahu to be extremely free, hyper surfy, and Mori, and at the time, I was touring the east coast of Australia in a van.
“I was the ideal candidate in terms of energy and personality. That is how I got there.
