Remember the cute and innocent child actors who captured the hearts of audiences in the 90s and early 2000s?
While many of these child stars were the reason local dramas and movies gained huge followings, like all children, these child stars had to grow up. In Hollywood, it is not uncommon to hear of child stars who grow up, break down, and end up making the news for the wrong reasons.
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Fortunately, child stars in Singapore have had a much better track record. Let’s have a look and see what Singapore’s child stars from the early 90s are up to these days:
Aloysius Pang started acting at the age of 9. He acted with Dasmond Koh in the 2003 drama A Child’s Hope. He was counted as one of the 8 Dukes of Mediacorp, and was crowned Best Newcomer Award at the Star Awards 2015.
[UPDATED ON JAN 24, 2019]
On Saturday (Jan 19), Aloysius was seriously injured during a military exercise in New Zealand. Unfortunately, the young actor succumbed to his wounds and passed away at 8.45 pm on Jan 23 (Wed).
According to Mindef, the 28-year-old was doing repair works inside a Singapore Self-Propelled Howitzer at the Waiouru Training Area when he “sustained injuries to his chest and abdominal areas”. The Straits Times reported that he had to undergo abdominal surgery at Auckland’s Waikato Hospital as well as a follow-up relook operation on Monday. On Tuesday, his condition reportedly worsened and he was placed under artificial life support in the intensive care unit (ICU) on Wednesday afternoon.
Aloysius had been recently cast in Channel 8’s “My One In A Million” romantic drama opposite Carrie Wong and James Seah that was to start shooting after Chinese New Year. Our thoughts and prayers are with Aloysius’s loved ones at this difficult time.
Local stars like Zoe Tay, Rebecca Lim and Tay Ping Hui have left tributes for Aloysius on their social media accounts. You can read them here.
Kimberly Wang, presently a successful DJ and radio producer with 987FM, started acting at 4 years old. One of her more famous roles was as Lana on the Channel 8 series Double Happiness. After acting in a few MediaCorp series, she returned to hosting and was even a sports presenter at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010.
Shawn Lee (left) and Joshua Ang started acting at 12 and 13 respectively. Their most famous childhood roles were in Jack Neo’s hit local comedy I Not Stupid.
Joshua Ang continued acting with MediaCorp as a full-time artiste. However, after a few more drama series, he decided to devote his time to his family’s business instead. Most recently, Joshua married his long time sweetheart, Shannon Low, and their first child was born in August 2018:
Marcus Ng was famous for playing Aloysius Phua on the hit series Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd. Unfortunately, he later made the headlines for insubordination during his NS and was sentenced to a week in the Detention Barracks.
Noriff Danial Ashriq (right) acted in TV series Police and Thief when he was 13. His later work with Mediacorp included hosting the TV show Mat Yoyo. His latest TV show, Manja Season 3, just aired its finale a week ago. Danial is also a father to two young children, and posts about them on Instagram:
More than a decade after playing the naive and chubby schoolboy Terry in the I Not Stupid franchise, Eric has morphed into a hunk.
“Once you’ve been fat, you don’t ever want to go back,” quips the 1.75m-tall Eric on the telephone from his home in Taipei.
The once rotund boy now hits the gym regularly and diets to maintain his lean 70kg physique.
He started shedding his baby fat when he hit puberty, but it was not until last year that he started using the treadmill seriously, playing basketball and watching his food intake – cutting out fried food and most sugary items.
“I just want to stay healthier. A lot of people who see me in recent years tell me that they cannot recognise me at all,” he says, sounding amused.
And while Terry struggled with his studies, Eric has done better.
After high school at United World College here, he left for his native Taiwan to pursue a bachelor’s degree in risk management at the National Chengchi University.
He also has a master’s in business administration from the same school and is now waiting to enlist for mandatory military service in Taiwan.
“Director Neo contacted me a few years ago to ask me to play a role in Ah Boys To Men, but I turned it down because I was in the middle of college exams.
“Acting was really fun, but it’s more important to have professional qualifications. I’ll most likely end up working in the corporate world,” says the bachelor, who was discovered at open auditions for I Not Stupid (2002).
The elder of two children born to a housewife and a furniture company manager, he appeared in a few more films after his debut, such as Homerun (2003) and Colour Of Hope (2007), but never wanted to be a full-time actor, he says.
“My friends will watch I Not Stupid and see my name on the credits. They’ll joke that Terry in the movie is me and when I tell them that it actually is me, they don’t really believe me.”
Megan Zheng (right) starred alongside Shawn Lee in Jack Neo’s 2003 film Homerun. It was her debut role at 10 years old. Today, she is pursuing a Business Management degree at Singapore Institute of Management.
Text and Photos: AsiaOne and Herworld
This post was updated on Jan 24, 2018.