From Top Model to Gladiatrix: Tenika Davis's Journey to Redefining Power on Television
She didn't just transform into Achillia. She demanded the narrative.
Tenika Davis has always defied expectation, but her role as Achillia in STARZ’s Spartacus: House of Ashur cements her as more than a presence on screen. She is a force. A warrior. A history maker. And in conversation with us here on So There’s That Podcast (see video at the end of article), Davis reveals the depth of her journey—from modeling to becoming one of the most compelling physical actors working today.
This isn’t transformation by accident. It’s transformation forged.
Not many stars begin their careers in front of the camera on a reality modeling competition, but Davis’ start on Canada’s Next Top Model (2008) wasn’t a destination—it was a beginning. She quickly transitioned from the runway to the screen, landing her first lead role in Wrong Turn 4 (2011)—a sequel in a beloved genre that demanded she turn presence into performance. That same year, she shared the screen with Angela Bassett and Paula Patton in Jumping the Broom. These performances signaled early on that Davis wasn’t here to be typecast, but to be noticed.
Role after role, she doubled down on versatility:
Saw VI (villainous intensity)
Netflix’s Jupiter’s Legacy (comic-book physicality)
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (horror pedigree)
HBO’s phenomenon IT: Welcome to Derry—where she appeared as Ida Grogan, deceased wife of Stephen Rider’s character, Hank Grogan, a terrifying monstrous figure that demanded vocal flexibility and physical distortion
In every performance, Davis takes up space like she knows she belongs there—because she does.
“Some roles you don’t just play…you carry them with you.”
That insight, echoing what she told Mara Webster of In Creative Company, reveals something much deeper: Davis is drawn to characters who are driven, sure, complex, and powerful. And there are few roles more fitting—or more revolutionary—than Achillia.
Television’s first written Gladiatrix
Spartacus: House of Ashur doesn’t just return to the sands. It expands the mythos. And Achillia is not a footnote in this story. She is a hard pivot. The first written gladiatrix in television history—not a background character, not a token ‘female warrior’—but a fully imagined, complex, embodied force whose storyline intersects with politics, brutality, survival, and agency.
Davis didn’t slip into this roles as if it were an accessory. She wore it like armor.
Her years of taekwondo training—where she competed against both men and women, holding a black belt in the craft—weren’t just athletic prep. They became the foundation of her physical performances over the years: the muscle memory of discipline, balance, and kinetic intention that a role like Achillia demands. She doesn’t just look powerful for the cameras. She feels it.
In our interview, Davis revealed that Achillia’s innate power comes from a truth she knows all too well. And when Achillia enters the arena, that power is on full display for all to see. Davis insists that every movement, every breath, and every moment she was in chains was about reclaiming agency rather than surrendering to it.
But being a gladiatrix on screen isn’t just about fighting. It’s involves intentional preparation and recovery—the often-ignored half of every great physical performance. Davis understands that, and she treats it as seriously as any stunt sequence or character arc. After her work on Jupiter’s Legacy, she told W Magazine in 2021 that her approach to fitness fundamentally changed:
“My choices in food changed after Jupiter’s Legacy…I learned to respect the whole spectrum of fitness—it’s not just tearing your muscles apart, it’s about how you rebuild them.”
That philosophy—rebuild, don’t just break—is what keeps her ready for roles that demand physical transformation and emotional vulnerability. Her training isn’t cosmetic. It’s foundational. This level of discipline and resolve takes years to master, and, one thing I learned about Davis is that she is a both student and master of her craft.
Why it matters beyond the arena
Tenika Davis isn’t just making history because of who Achillia is—but because of what she represents.
In the last decade, Black female superheroes and warriors have shone in film and television, led by iconic performers like Danai Gurira (Michonne/The Walking Dead/The Ones Who Live and Okoye/Black Panther), Letitia Wright (Shuri/Black Panther), Teyonah Parris (Monica Rambeau/The Marvels), Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie/Thor), and Viola Davis (General Nanisca/The Woman King). Now, we add Tenika Davis as Achillia to the ranks—a woman who represents the fallen Gladiatrixes, whose stories and identities were ignored time and time again.
In a landscape where action and genre roles have too often been just another mirror of the same tropes, Achillia refuses them. She rips them apart and reshapes them into an image of those who ever felt like the underdog in their lives, circumstances, and environments. Davis plays her with a clarity that is without apology—a woman wholly and fully anchored not only in her power, but in her purpose.
The first 5 episodes of Spartacus: House of Ashur are available to stream now on STARZ. Tune in every Friday for new episodes. Check out the interview below.
© Kivonshe | So There’s That Podcast
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