The Hot List, Part V: Heartthrobs and Tough Guys [25 Photos]

Zahn McClarnon, Rick Mora, Kalani Queypo, Eric Schweig and Martin Sensmeier make up another quintet of handsome and fascinating Native men.

Author:
ICT Staff
Updated:
Sep 13, 2018
Original:
Aug 14, 2015

We're back with another quintet of Indigenous hunks for your enjoyment. Yes, they're accomplished actors (and model-actors), but they're also extremely easy on the eyes. This is our fifth installment of The Hot List; once you're done here you may want to check out the men and women we've profiled previously.

Zahn McClarnon

McClarnon has played two very different supporting characters on the two recent TV dramas that have most prominently featured Native storylines: The Red Road and Longmire. On the former, he was a loose cannon who got what was coming to him; on the latter he is Officer Mathias of the Tribal police. McClarnon, Standing Rock Sioux, is now in Mekko, a film directed by Sterlin Harjo that you will be hearing more and more about. Sonny Skyhawk, reviewing Mekko on Facebook, remarked thatMcClarnon "is the Native acting version of James Dean, and gets better with every film he is in."

Hostess, Mistress of Ceremonies, and 2012 Miss Native American USA Shaylin Shabi (Navajo/Dine'), Miss Native American USA 2015 winner Kristina Hyatt (Eastern Band of Cherokee), 2014 Miss Native American USA April Brannon Yazza (Zuni Pueblo and Navajo/Dine'), 2013 Miss Native American USA Sarah Ortegon (Northern Arapaho and the Eastern Shoshone Tribes), on Aug 8, 2015. Photo: Jason Morgan Edwards

Zahn McClarnon in 'Mekko'

Zahn McClarnon on 'The Red Road'

Zahn McClarnon on 'Longmire'

Martin Sensmeier

Sensmeier seems like a rocket about to take off. When he's not hunting moose in Alaska or hooking big fish out in deep water, he's a model, host (on the innovative series The Hub), and actor. You get the sense that the modeling thing is there for him -- this is a sense you get by looking at the man with your eyeballs. This young Tlingit and Koyukon-Athabascan fellow is dangerously handsome. But it's the acting thing that is going to make him famous. He's recently played a recurring role on the WGN series Salem, and just weeks ago we learned that he has been cast in the remake of The Magnificent Seven. Judging from the selfies with Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke, movie-star life seems to be treating Sensmeier well.

Martin Sensmeier photographed by Jeremy Valdez, www.cypherstudios.com

Martin Sensmeier photographed by Rick Day

Martin Sensmeier in character on the set of 'Salem'

Martin Sensmeier photographed by Tarrice Love

Martin Sensmeier for Virgil Ortiz

Eric Schweig

48-year-old Schweig has had a long and distinguished career in the American and Canadian film and TV industry, but he's really special in Indian country for having portrayed not one but two contemporary Native tough guys. In Skins, he played police detective Rudy Yellow Lodge; he's currently receiving acclaim as Andy Fraser on Blackstone. Described (rightly or wrongly) as a rez version of Tony Soprano, the intimidating, ruthless Fraser seems a role that Schweig, Inuit, was born to play. And it all adds to Schweig's intense, brooding on-screen allure -- as they say, women love a bad boy.

Martin Sensmeier for Virgil Ortiz

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A Gitanyow fisher prepares to dip-net for sockeye salmon at the Lax An Zok fish camp on the Meziadin River. The Gitanyow, a small First Nation in northwest BC, are seeking Aboriginal title to their lands in order to better manage and rebuild salmon runs threatened by climate change. Photo by Toby Hall | The Tyee

This cover image released by Pantheon shows "American Oasis: Finding the Future in the Cities of the Southwest" by Kyle Paoletta. (Pantheon via AP)

Eric Schweig in 'Squanto: A Warrior's Tale'

Eric Schweig in 'Inheritance'

Kalani Queypo

Queypo's biggest credit is The New World, directed by Terrence Malick, in which he played Parahunt. That was a decade ago, when the Blackfeet/Native Hawaiian actor wasn't yet 20. He has worked steadily since, appearing on such hit TV shows as Mad Men and Nurse Jackie, and looks to get back into the spotlight with his portrayal of Squanto in the National Geographic miniseries Saints & Strangers.

Eric Schweig in 'Inheritance'

Kalani Queypo photographed by Kelly Dymon

Kalani Queypo photographed by Saul Huezo

Rick Mora

In a recent interview with Rebels Market, Yaqui/Apache model-actor Mora discussed the state of Natives in entertainment.

"The best way for this industry to change is to produce more content utilizing Native themed content and content that includes native talent as an equal casting choice alongside all other ethnicities represented in Hollywood," he said. "We are now in an advanced stage of ethnic diversity and Indigenous Americans deserve to be represented equally."

Rebels Market also notes Mora's Googlability, romance-novel covers (he's done 18 of them) and passionate female Facebook fans.

"I have no problem with women objectifying me!" he says.

Kalani Queypo photographed by Saul Huezo

Rick Mora in costume as Proud Feather in 'For Blood'

Rick Mora photographed by Cherrilyn Silva