Date of Birth

16 December 1997, Auckland, New Zealand

Birth Name

Keneti James Fitzgerald Apa

Nickname

KJ

Height

5' 11" (1.8 m)

Trivia

• He has Samoan, Scottish, and English ancestry.
• KJ Apa is Samoan & Kiwi (Kiwi= New Zealander). His father is Samoan & his mother is Kiwi.
• When KJ was a kid, he would go play his guitar out on street corners around his house in Auckland. (While he's out on location shooting movies/TV shows KJ has joined other people performing music on the streets by playing guitar with them.*).
• He's the youngest of three children in his family. He has two older sisters, Timena & Ari.
• In addition to acting, KJ sings, writes songs & plays guitar. He sometimes brings one of his guitars with him while he's off on location shooting movies/TV shows.
• At 14 years of age, KJ recorded a solo guitar album.
• He's not a natural red head. The actor, whose natural hair colour is a dark brown, admitted that it took 10 hours in the salon to get that perfect shade of orange.
• He auditioned for Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War (2016), but walked out on his audition knowing he wouldn't win the role. He also auditioned for Jason Scott/The Red Ranger in Power Rangers (2017), while his future Riverdale (2017) co-star Ross Butler auditioned for Zack Taylor/The Black Ranger. Another Riverdale co-star, Cody Kearsley, appeared in Power Rangers as Hawkeye.
• He likes watermelon.

Quotes

• [on getting attention from women based on his shirtless social media posts] I haven't had anyone come up to me and ask to lick or touch my abs in person but the thirst is very real, it's kinda narly.
• [on whether it is intimidating to be sexualized on screen as Archie] Not intimidating at all. When I do sexual scenes I'm always thinking that I have a lot of family back home watching this. When I read the pilot though, it wasn't difficult for me to see that's the direction they were taking. Every single episode I have my shirt off so inevitably, it's going to be gnarly.
• [on being inspired by any celebrity's physical transformation] Zac Efron! He got fully jacked and shredded for the movie Baywatch. It was insane. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. I was like holy cow.