Joe Taslim

Johannes Taslim (born 23 June 1981), known professionally as Joe Taslim, is an Indonesian actor and martial artist. He was a member of Indonesia’s national judo team from 1997 to 2009, becoming a three-time medalist (one Silver and two Bronze) at the Southeast Asian Games, and a Gold medalist at the 2008 Pekan Olahraga Nasional.

His film acting roles include Sergeant Jaka in The Raid (2011), Jah in Fast & Furious 6 (2013), Manas in Star Trek Beyond (2016), and Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat (2021). He has a starring role as Li Yong on the television series Warrior.

Early life
Taslim was born in Palembang, Indonesia, to a Christian family of Chinese descent. He began studying martial arts from a young age, and cites Japanese judoka Kosei Inoue and Tadahiro Nomura as inspirations. He has also practiced taekwondo, pencak silat and wushu.

Judo
Taslim was a member of Indonesia’s national judo team from 1997 to 2009. In 1999, he won a Gold medal at the Southeast Asia Judo Championships in Singapore, in the Men’s Free Class. He was a Bronze medalist at the 2001 and 2005 Southeast Asian Games, and a Silver medalist at the 2007 Games. He won a Gold medal in the Men –81 kg class at the 2008 Indonesia National Games. He retired from active competition in 2009.

Film career
Prior to his film debut, Taslim worked as a model in print ads and commercials. He made his acting debut in the 2008 film Karma.

In 2010, he won the role of Jaka, a sergeant in a special police squad, in the award-winning The Raid, after a series of fight auditions and reading.

Following The Raid, Taslim took part in HBO Asia's first action horror film, Dead Mine, which had a theatrical release in selected Asian territories in September 2012, followed by exclusive television premieres across the HBO Asia network.

Taslim appeared in the feature film Fast & Furious 6 (2013), as the villainous Jah, a mercenary who uses his martial arts to fight two of the film's protagonists, Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) and Han Seoul-Oh (Sung Kang).

In May 2013, it was reported that Taslim would star in the action thriller The Night Comes for Us. In September 2014, pre-production on the film was halted and the script was instead adapted as a graphic novel. The film was eventually released by Netflix on 19 October 2018.

In 2016, he played an antagonist character, Manas, a former first officer of Captain Balthazar Edison (played by Idris Elba), Anderson Le, turned into an alien in Star Trek Beyond.

In 2017, Taslim was cast in the role of Li Yong in the Cinemax action series, Warrior. He played Li Yong, a Long Zii enforcer and secretly Mai Ling's lover. His character serves as a rival to the series' protagonist Ah Sahm. The series premiered on 5 April 2019.

In July 2019, Taslim was cast as Sub-Zero in the Mortal Kombat reboot. The film premiered in April 2021 in theaters and on HBO Max.