And now he’s finding a new audience – on a slightly bigger screen – on Celebrity Treasure Island.
Wedding of Louis and Ashleigh Davis outside KFC in Whangarei. Photo / via Facebook
It’s all meant a lot of attention for a long time. And while grateful, the 32-year-old says when he looks at the bigger picture, all the follows, comments and now TV castings, are little more than background noise in his life.
There’s a quote he likes that sums up his approach to his reality:
If you live for the cheers, you’ll die for the boos.
“You have to know who can give you mana,” Davis explains. “I don’t give my mana to random people on the other side of the world.”
So why is he doing it? What’s the point in being a content creator if you don’t care about the opinions of your audience?
“That’s easy,” he says, “I’m trying to portray Māori men as the way that my ancestors were.
“When the first settlers arrived, and they met Māori, they described in their journals how it was considered chiefly to be with children, to be playful and cheeky with them.”
Davis says that for people across the world, he might be the only impression they ever get of Māori, and he’s hellbent on making it a good one.
“I want there to be a global story bigger than Once Were Warriors about men that look like me. I want the biggest story ever told about Māori men to be one of goodness, one of love, and my [social media video] might be the only thing they see.“
TikTok star Louis Davis is making his mark on the world. Photo / Jason Dorday
That means he never uses “cheap stereotypes about my people”.
“I never portray us as dumb or drunk. Hopefully, I can play a part in creating a tsunami wave that wipes away any stereotype that came before me.”
Davis says one of the biggest compliments he’s received was being labelled as “boring” online.
“I’m quite proud of that, because I’ve made a name for myself in a way that is true to who I am, and no one has to be harmed in my success.”
He says it’s concerning that some of the loudest voices online are also promoting harmful rhetoric.
Young boys, he explains are increasingly told success requires an “alpha” persona built on harming and putting others down – but he sees himself as proof it doesn’t have to be that way.
“If you think about people like the Andrew Tates and the most toxic voices on the internet, many, many people have to be harmed for them to ascend to the top.
“I hope that I’m an example that you can be ‘boring’ and your dreams can work out.”
Davis credits his wife for much of that success, rejecting the idea that men should freely chase ambition while women stay home to raise children.
Louis Davis and Frank Bunce in Celebrity Treasure Island episode 6.
Before agreeing to Celebrity Treasure Island – filmed in the Far North, where he grew up and now lives – he made sure he had her blessing.
“I feel sad being away from my kids, who are 5, 3 and 1, and my wife. I try to take them with me whenever possible. But I have an amazing wife, she facilitates all of my dreams and says, ‘Ok, how can we make that happen?’ It’s only possible because of her,” he explains.
“This is my big dream as someone from the north – I never thought I’d be able to come back to my whenua.”
But Davis believes if his kids grow up watching their parents have “delusional aspirations”, they’ll think that kind of thinking is normal – in the very best way.
“They’ll have the courage to be a pianist or a dancer – they’ll think anything is possible.”
“This is my big dream as someone from the north – I never thought I’d be able to come back to my whenua.” Photo / Jason Dorday
He would know. He says his own courage came from his parents, Sharon and Lou, who work for the charity Te Kai a te Rangatira, which helps provide opportunity and leadership avenues for Māori. Davis is hoping to win the CTI prize money in its name.
“When I was 8, I figured out how to edit Jackie Chan fighting dragons on my mum’s computer. I showed my parents, and my mum said, ‘You’re amazing, son. You are so talented. Your ideas are amazing’.”
His dad, he says, encouraged him to try hard, but was instrumental in making sure he knew that if he mucked up, it wasn’t the end. There was no problem that couldn’t be solved.
“If kids have those two things – the courage to be aspirational and the belief that nothing is unfixable – the world can’t do shit to you.”
Davis says he wishes all kids in the Far North could be given that level of belief in what’s possible.
“You look around, there’s nothing here. It’s really hard to be aspirational and to think that there is more to your life than just getting a job, maybe paying down the mortgage,” he says of his hometown.
“I’m not saying that’s not a life, but if you’re a creative kid who wants more or something different, we don’t have many examples here.”
Louis Davis is ready to take on the shores of CTI. Photo / TVNZ, Matt Klitscher
Davis is quick to deflect any ideas that he could be that role model. Instead, he suggests, try and focus on what you can offer the people around you.
“There is no amount of money or status or things you can acquire that can replace the feeling of being a part of a village.
“I think our most meaningful pursuit we can make as rangatahi Māori is to answer the very simple questions: What kind of son are you? What kind of partner are you? What kind of father are you? What kind of neighbour are you?”
Celebrity Treasure Island is streaming now on TVNZ 2 and TVNZ+