It’s hard to imagine anyone else in the letterman jacket. For seven years, the CW’s Riverdale was a fever dream of serial killers, cults, time travel, and high school musical numbers. At the center of that chaotic storm was a guy with impossibly red hair and an even more impossible physique. If you’ve spent any time on Netflix lately, you know exactly who I’m talking about.
KJ Apa is the actor who plays Archie Andrews, and honestly, the story of how a kid from New Zealand became the face of America’s most iconic comic book teenager is more interesting than some of the show's actual plotlines.
He wasn't a household name when the pilot dropped in 2017. He was just a teenager from Auckland who had done some soap opera work. Then, suddenly, he was Archie. But it wasn't just about showing up and saying lines. For Apa, the role was a massive physical and mental undertaking that lasted nearly a decade.
The Kiwis are Taking Over: How KJ Apa Landed Archie Andrews
Keneti James Fitzgerald Apa—most of us just call him KJ—didn't grow up reading Archie Comics. In fact, most people outside the US didn't. The casting search for "The New Archie" was a global dragnet that lasted months. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, the showrunner, was looking for a very specific vibe: the boy-next-door but with a modern, slightly darker edge.
They found it in a kid who had barely been in the States. Apa actually started his career on a New Zealand soap called Shortland Street. If you haven't seen it, it's a staple of Kiwi television. He played Kane Jenkins. That role gave him the stamina needed for the grueling pace of North American TV production, where you're often filming 22 episodes a year with 14-hour days.
The audition process for Riverdale was intense. Apa has mentioned in interviews that he didn't feel great about his first read. He was tired, maybe a bit jet-lagged. But something clicked during the screen test. He brought a sincerity to Archie that grounded the show's more ridiculous elements. Without that earnestness, the show would have collapsed under the weight of its own campiness.
The Hair Maintenance Was a Nightmare
Let's talk about the hair. It’s the elephant in the room.
Archie Andrews is defined by that carrot-top orange, but KJ Apa is naturally a very dark brunette. To get that specific "Archie Red," the production team had to bleach and dye his hair every two weeks. Apa has been vocal about how much he hated the process. It wasn't just a quick "sit in the chair and chat" situation.
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The first time they dyed his hair, it took about ten hours. It’s a painful process. Bleach on the scalp for that long is no joke. There were even reports early on that the chemical burns were getting pretty bad. Eventually, they refined the process, but if you look closely at different seasons, the shade of red shifts slightly as the stylists tried to find a balance between "comic book accurate" and "not destroying KJ’s hair follicles."
Beyond the Red Hair: The Archie Aesthetic
It wasn't just the hair. The Archie in Riverdale was a significant departure from the scrawny, clumsy kid in the 1950s comics. This Archie was an athlete. He was a construction worker. He was a boxer. He was, briefly, a soldier.
Apa had to maintain a strict fitness regimen to keep up with the "Hot Archie" persona that the CW marketed so heavily. It’s a lot of pressure for a young actor. You’re essentially expected to stay at 5% body fat for seven years straight. While he’s always been athletic—playing rugby back in New Zealand—the Hollywood version of fitness is a different beast entirely.
The Musical Talent is Actually Real
One of the big subplots in the early seasons was Archie’s struggle between football and music. While the writing was sometimes a bit "cringe" (as the internet loves to say), the talent was legitimate. KJ Apa is a highly skilled guitar player.
He didn't just learn a few chords for the camera. He’s been playing since he was a kid and even released a solo instrumental album called The Fourth Step back in 2021. It’s actually pretty good—sort of a bluesy, indie-rock vibe that feels a world away from the pop songs Archie Andrews was forced to sing at Veronica’s speakeasy.
When you see Archie playing the guitar on screen, that’s usually really KJ. Having a lead actor who can actually play the instrument saved the production a lot of money on hand doubles and made the musical sequences feel slightly more grounded, even when the context was bizarre.
Why KJ Apa Stayed When Others Might Have Left
Seven seasons is a long time. By the time Riverdale ended in 2023, the cast members were in their mid-to-late twenties playing characters that had lived through multiple lifetimes’ worth of trauma.
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Apa stayed the course.
A lot of actors get "The Itch" to leave their career-defining show around season four or five. They want to do movies. They want to win Oscars. While Apa did some films during the hiatus—like The Hate U Give and the faith-based hit I Still Believe—he remained the anchor of Riverdale.
There’s a certain kind of loyalty there that’s rare in Hollywood. He seemed to embrace the absurdity of the show. Whether Archie was being attacked by a bear or leading a private militia or gaining actual superpowers in the final seasons, Apa played it straight. That’s the secret sauce. If the lead actor winks at the camera and acts like the plot is stupid, the audience stops caring. Apa never did that. He treated Archie’s journey with a level of respect that kept the fanbase loyal until the very last episode.
The Reality of Life After Archie
Since the show wrapped, Apa hasn't rushed into another massive franchise. He’s been focusing on fatherhood—he has a son with model Clara Berry—and lean-back creative projects.
It’s a massive transition. When you spend your entire early twenties being "The Guy Who Plays Archie," finding your own identity outside of a red-headed comic book character is a process. He’s been leaning more into his music and smaller, more personal film projects.
What People Often Get Wrong About the Role
People think playing a character like Archie is easy. "Just stand there and look handsome," right?
Wrong.
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The workload for a lead on a network show is crushing. You are in almost every scene. You are the first one on set at 5:00 AM and the last one to leave at midnight. You have to memorize pages of dialogue every single night. For Apa, he was doing all of this while living thousands of miles away from his home country.
- Longevity: He played the character for 137 episodes.
- Cultural Impact: He redefined a character that had existed since 1941.
- Physicality: He performed many of his own stunts and maintained a professional athlete's physique for nearly a decade.
The Legacy of the Letterman Jacket
The legacy of KJ Apa as Archie is complicated by the show’s reputation for being "weird." But if you strip away the Gargoyle Kings and the parallel universes, Apa’s performance was about a kid trying to be a "good man" in a world that was falling apart.
He took a two-dimensional drawing and turned him into a three-dimensional person.
If you're looking to follow his career now that the show is over, the best place isn't actually on the big screen—it's his music. That's where you see the "real" KJ, without the orange hair dye and the scripted teenage angst.
How to Follow KJ Apa’s Next Moves
If you've finished your Riverdale binge and want to see what the man behind Archie is up to, here is the best way to keep up:
- Check out his music: Look up The Fourth Step on Spotify or Apple Music. It’s a great glimpse into his actual artistic tastes.
- Watch his film work: The Hate U Give shows a much different side of his acting ability than the CW ever allowed him to display.
- Follow his social media: He’s surprisingly candid about the reality of his life post-fame, often sharing glimpses of his life back in New Zealand and his journey as a father.
The "Archie" era of his life might be over, but for a whole generation of viewers, KJ Apa will always be the guy who brought the town with pep to life. Just don't ask him to dye his hair red again anytime soon. He’s probably had enough bleach for three lifetimes.