Antony Starr

Antony Starr (born 25 October 1975) is a New Zealand actor. He is best known for his television roles. He played the dual roles of Jethro and Van West in the series Outrageous Fortune (2005–10), Lucas Hood in the Cinemax series Banshee (2013–16), and gained wider attention for playing Homelander in the Amazon Prime Video series The Boys and its spin-offs (2019–present).

For his performance in the 2012 Australian film Wish You Were Here, Starr won the AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, among other accolades. He was nominated for the New Zealand Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in After the Waterfall (2010).

Early life
Starr was born in Wellington, New Zealand. Growing up, he was passionate about surfing and trained in karate. Initially, he aspired to become a police officer. Starr is multilingual and can speak English, Indonesian, Norwegian, and Spanish.

He attended Rangitoto College, graduating in 1993. Although he was a good student, he was frequently absent. He took drama classes in school and worked as an extra in various productions, eventually pursuing acting full-time. During this period, he also worked at a petrol station.

1995–2017: Early work and breakthrough
Starr began his professional acting career early in the 1990s with a small part in Shortland Street and had guest roles in Xena: Warrior Princess.

In 2001, Starr was cast in Mercy Peak as Todd Van der Velter, a guest role that he had throughout the show's three seasons. He also received a role as the brother of long running character Waverley Wilson in the soap opera Shortland Street. He appeared for several weeks as part of the write out of the Minnie Crozier character. Starr stated he did not like the fast pace of the show and thought his performances suffered because of it.

Since then, Starr's television credits have included a core cast role in kids' series Hard Out and guest roles in P.E.T. Detectives and Street Legal as well as a brief stint in Serial Killers, the comedy series that was penned by Outrageous Fortune co-creator James Griffin.

Playing twins Van and Jethro West won Starr the 2007 Air New Zealand Screen Award for Performance by an Actor, the award for Best Actor at the Qantas Television Awards and Best Actor at the Asian TV Awards in the same year. Readers of the TV Guide also voted Starr Best Actor in the 2007 TV Guide Best on the Box People's Choice Awards. In 2005, he was named Best Actor at the inaugural Qantas Television Awards for his role in Outrageous Fortune.

During the production of the first series of Outrageous Fortune, Starr also juggled filming for Toa Fraser's debut feature, No. 2 which was released in New Zealand in early 2006. Starr's other film credits include Roger Donaldson's The World's Fastest Indian, the US comedy feature Without a Paddle and Brad McGann's feature film In My Father's Den. Between series two and three of Outrageous Fortune, Starr worked on a collaborative short film with some friends.

Starr appeared on stage in the second edition of Sex with Strangers (2005). In 2004, Starr performed in two theatre productions: Closer at Auckland's Silo Theatre and Sex with Strangers directed by Colin Mitchell at the Herald Theatre.

Between filming Outrageous Fortune seasons five and six, Starr starred in feature film After the Waterfall and the telefeature Spies and Lies.

In 2011, Starr joined the cast of the Australian police drama Rush, playing Senior Sergeant Charlie Lewis. He also had a role in the second series of Lowdown.

From 2013 to 2016, Starr starred in the television series, Banshee, his first role on U.S. television. Playing John Smith, an ex-con who, after 15 years in prison, assumes the identity of Lucas Hood, becoming the new Sheriff of Banshee. Trying to reconnect with his former lover, Anastasia, both learn that he "has become a distant (violent) version of the man he once was". The show's fourth and final season began in April 2016. Also in 2016, Starr portrayed main character Garrett Hawthorne on the CBS crime/mystery series American Gothic.

2018–present: Worldwide recognition for The Boys
In January 2018, it was announced that Starr was cast as The Homelander in The Boys, Amazon Studios's adaptation of the Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson comic book of the same name. In the series, he plays opposite Karl Urban, who is also from New Zealand. "We've got an American show with a Kiwi playing an all-American hero psychopath and another Kiwi playing an Englishman. It's a pretty bizarre mix-up," said Starr. Season one was released in July 2019 on Amazon Prime, on which it had strong viewership. Season two of The Boys was released in September 2020. Season three was released in June 2022. Both installments received consistent praise and success.

Starr’s performance emerged as a stand-out element of the show and established him as an actor. Although initially, he was dismissive of the role. In an interview with The New York Times, he confessed, "'There wasn't a hell of a lot for me to go on, other than 'Bad Superman.' So I did the audition almost out of anger. Threw it down, sent it in and went, there's your audition.'"

Carrie Witmer of Uproxx praised Starr by writing, "he creates fear, excitement, and comedy with a nightmarish stare or a menacing smile." Hannah Gearan of Screen Rant called Starr "The Best Part of The Boys", stating that he provides a "chilling performance with a measured dialogue delivery that still makes Homelander seem grounded." Michael Ordoña of Los Angeles Times referred to Homelander as "TV's most intriguing villain." Amhara Chamberlayne of Hollywood Insider ranked Starr's Homelander among all-time great villains, and compared his role to characters like King Joffrey, Stringer Bell, and Gustavo Fring. Since the release of the first season, audiences and critics alike have campaigned for Starr to receive an Emmy Award.

Subsequently, Starr portrayed Homelander in The Boys spin-off series, including the animated The Boys Presents: Diabolical (2022) in a voice role, and had a cameo in Gen V (2023). The same character appeared as a DLC in the video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022) which was voiced by and modeled after Starr. The likeness of the character also made an appearance in 2024 video game Mortal Kombat 1. On the film front, he worked in two feature films in 2023. The first being the action drama The Covenant starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Next, Starr played the major part of a controlling father in the horror Cobweb. Joshua Rivera of Polygon applauded Starr and expressed that, "Starr excels at portraying disturbed men who have learned to wear normalcy like a mask."

The fourth season of The Boys premiered on Amazon Prime Video on June 13, 2024.

Personal life
Starr was married to New Zealand actress Emma Lahana. He filed for divorce in 2016 at Los Angeles County Superior Court.

On 4 March 2022, it was reported that Starr was arrested in Alicante, Spain, after assaulting a 21-year-old man at a local pub. He was sentenced to a 12-month suspended prison sentence and paid $5,530 in restitution to avoid prison time.