Cast of Moana 2: Full Voice Actors & Characters List

Disney confirmed Auliʻi Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson would return for Moana 2—and then surrounded them with an ensemble built for authenticity. The sequel introduces four Pacific Islander newcomers to Moana’s wayfinding crew while keeping the original family unit intact across all language tracks.

Voice of Moana: Auliʻi Cravalho ·
Voice of Maui: Dwayne Johnson ·
New Crew Members: Loto, Moni, Kele, Matangi ·
Release Year: 2024

The table below consolidates the core cast by role type—returning leads, new additions, and crew personnel—to make the ensemble structure easy to scan at a glance.

Who’s voicing Moana in Moana 2?

When Disney cast Auliʻi Cravalho for the original 2016 film, the then-16-year-old from Kohala, Hawaii, became an instant icon. In Moana 2, she returns to the role and also handles the Hawaiian dubbing—making her one of the few actors to voice a character across all available language tracks (Wikipedia). The casting decision reinforced Disney’s commitment to keeping the Polynesian representation authentic rather than recasting with a more commercially recognizable name.

Dwayne Johnson is back as Maui, and his involvement went beyond the recording booth. His daughters Jasmine and Tiana Johnson voice a pair of MOANA-BEs fan club members in the film, while his mother Ata Maivia Johnson appears as a villager. The extended family participation turned out to be one of the more charming behind-the-scenes details in the production (Wikipedia). Johnson has now voiced the demigod in three separate productions across eight years, cementing the role as one of the more sustained voice commitments in his career.

Auli’i Cravalho reprise

Born November 22, 2000, Cravalho was essentially recruited as a child actor for the original Moana and grew up alongside the character. Her return means Moana sounds the same across English and Hawaiian tracks—a rare consistency in animated sequels that often cycle through new voice actors. She’s also credited alongside Hualālai Chung in the Hawaiian dubbing, suggesting the language-track production operated differently than most (Wikipedia).

Supporting cast details

The supporting ranks include Temuera Morrison as Tui, Moana’s father. Notably, Morrison handles his own singing this time around, which he didn’t in the first film—a detail that speaks to both his growing comfort with the role and the expanded musical scope of the sequel. Rachel House returns as Tala, who exists in the sequel as a manta ray spirit, and she likewise reprises the role in Māori dubbing (Wikipedia). Nicole Scherzinger voices Sina, Moana’s mother, continuing her role from the original film.

The pattern across the entire cast is unmistakable: Disney went looking for Pacific Islander performers first and acting credentials second. Gerald Ramsey makes his film debut as Tautai Vasa, Moana’s ancestor—a character who exists to ground the sequel’s mythology in ancestral tradition. Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda also marks her acting debut as Simea. Both debuts suggest Disney was willing to take chances on unknowns who could bring lived experience to roles that might otherwise feel generic.

Who is the new woman in Moana 2?

The sequel introduces four fresh faces to Moana’s wayfinding crew, and each one brings a distinct personality to the ensemble. Rather than adding characters as background extras, Disney structured the new arrivals as functional crew members with specific skills—Moni as an enthusiastic but inexperienced navigator, Loto as a brainy craftswoman, Kele as a grumpy farmer, and Matangi as Nalo’s enforcer with control over bats. This approach gives each new actor something to actually perform rather than standing in the background (ScreenRant).

Matangi the Bat Lady

Matangi stands out as the most visually distinct of the new characters—a bat controller working for Nalo, the storm god who serves as the film’s primary antagonist. She’s voiced by Awhimai Fraser, who also handles the Māori dubbing version of the role (Wikipedia). Fraser’s dual-language participation echoes the approach taken with other Pacific Islander cast members, where English and indigenous language recordings are handled by the same performer to maintain vocal consistency.

Other new female voices

Hualālai Chung plays Moni, who is explicitly described as a huge fan of Maui’s mythology—a character detail that adds humor to the crew dynamics and gives Chung a comedic hook to play. Chung’s credits include Sesame Street and NCIS: Hawai’i, suggesting she’s no stranger to working across different production styles. Rose Matafeo, known for Golden Boy and Baby Done, voices Loto as a quirky, brainy craftswoman, providing a different energy than the more earnest returning cast members (ScreenRant).

Who is the villain in Moana 2?

Matangi operates as Nalo’s enforcer, which makes her the closest thing to a traditional antagonist among the new characters—but Nalo himself is the primary villain. The storm god is voiced by Tofiga Fepulea’i and appears in a mid-credits sequence, suggesting his role may expand in future installments. Matangi’s specific function is to control bats, which adds a mythological dimension to her character design that ties into Polynesian folklore rather than generic fantasy aesthetics (Wikipedia).

Villain role and voice

The film’s villain structure diverges from the first Moana, where Te Kā operated as a more singular, implacable force. Moana 2 distributes antagonist presence across multiple characters with different functions—Nalo as the source of threat, Matangi as his enforcer, and the oceanic obstacles as environmental antagonists. This gives the crew more distinct opposition at each story beat rather than one climactic confrontation.

Antagonist explanation

The creative team clearly built the villain hierarchy to justify the expanded cast. If Matangi didn’t exist, Nalo would need someone to carry out his bat-related schemes. If Kele didn’t have a reason to distrust the voyage, the crew would lack internal friction. The antagonist design serves dual purposes—threatening the mission while also giving each new character a specific reason to be needed on the boat.

Is the baby in Moana 2 her sister or daughter?

Simea is Moana’s little sister, not her daughter. This detail resolves one of the more common sources of confusion heading into release, where some viewers assumed the child in promotional images was a child of Moana’s own making. The misconception probably stems from Moana spending most of the first film growing into a leadership role, making it easy to assume time had passed. In reality, the sequel simply introduces the sibling dynamic that the first film didn’t have room to explore (Wikipedia).

Simea family relation

Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda plays Simea and marks her acting debut with this role—a fact that makes the casting choice even more deliberate. Rather than casting an established child actor for the role, Disney went with someone new, potentially prioritizing authenticity of reaction over polished performance technique. Simea’s presence gives Moana someone to protect beyond her island and provides a more personal motivation for the sequel’s mission (ScreenRant).

Little sister name

Simea fills a gap in the original film’s family structure. Sina and Tui were established as Moana’s parents, but whether they had other children wasn’t addressed in the first movie. The sequel’s choice to add a younger sibling—rather than aging Moana up and giving her children—keeps the focus on the family dynamic without shifting the narrative into a different life stage entirely.

What did Nicole Scherzinger do in Moana?

Nicole Scherzinger voices Sina, Moana’s mother, in both the original film and the sequel. Her casting was notable in 2016 because Scherzinger herself has Filipino heritage, making her one of the few Hollywood actors of Southeast Asian descent attached to a major animated property at the time. In Moana 2, she returns to the role and appears across all available language tracks, maintaining the vocal continuity of the family unit (Wikipedia).

Scherzinger’s role

Sina functions as Moana’s primary grounding influence throughout both films—the parent who understands the pull of the ocean even while cautioning against recklessness. Scherzinger brings musical theater training to the role, which matters because Sina has several solo and ensemble numbers across both films. Her comfort with performance under pressure shows in the vocal energy she brings to scenes that could otherwise feel like exposition.

Returning cast like Sina

The family unit of Sina, Tui, and Tala is entirely intact in Moana 2, which gives the sequel a consistent emotional anchor. When Moana leaves on her voyage, what she’s leaving behind matters because these characters are familiar. Disney could have recast any of these roles with younger or more commercially active actors, but the decision to keep the original cast together signals that the relationship continuity was worth more than the marketing boost of a bigger name.

The movie featured an incredible cast of Pacific Islander voice actors personally selected by Disney to honor authentic Polynesian cultural representation.

— YouTube Cast Then and Now (video producer)

Most of the principal cast members reprise their roles including Dwayne Johnson, Auliʻi Cravalho, Rachel House, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Scherzinger and Alan Tudyk.

— Wikipedia editors (encyclopedic source)

Alan Tudyk continues as Heihei, the comically incompetent rooster who somehow survived the first film’s journey and shows up again in Moana 2. Jemaine Clement returns as Tamatoa in the mid-credits sequence, which plays like an inside reward for attentive viewers. The mid-credits structure itself is new for the franchise, suggesting Disney is experimenting with theatrical-only features that reward in-theater attendance over home video waiting periods.

What distinguishes the Moana 2 cast from many animated sequels is the deliberate absence of stunt casting for marquee value. Rose Matafeo’s credits include Golden Boy and Baby Done—not blockbuster productions, but vehicles that showcase her range as a physical comedian. David Fane brings a grumpy energy that reads differently from most animated supporting characters. Hualālai Chung’s credits include Sesame Street and NCIS: Hawai’i, placing her firmly in the family entertainment space Disney was building toward. Each casting choice reflects someone who could do the job and had the background to justify why they were picked.

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Auliʻi Cravalho returns as Moana alongside Dwayne Johnson’s Maui in the full voice actors list, which spotlights new wayfinding crew voices like Rose Matafeo.

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