GAVIN YAP is an actor/writer/director who has been involved in the Malaysian entertainment scene since childhood. Some of his theater credits as an actor include ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’, ‘Hamlet’ and ‘The Fastest Clock In The Universe’.
He served as Director-In-Residence at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre for 2 years, during which time he directed productions of ‘The Homecoming’, ‘Endgame’, ‘4.48 Psychosis’ and ‘Wrecks’ to name a few. In 2007, he was awarded the National Arts Award for directing. He has worked extensively as an actor and writer for both television and theater, receiving award nominations for Best Actor (Importance of Being Ernest) and Best New Play (Wish I Was There).
These days Gavin also works as a voice director for animation. His most recent projects include the upcoming animated film ‘War of the Worlds: Goliath’, featuring the voice talents of Adrian Paul and Adam Baldwin, ‘Saladin: The Animated series’, in which he also plays the tittle character, and Silver Ant Studio’s ‘Seefood’.
He also writes the film column for the Malaysian edition of Esquire Magazine and can also be heard debating, quite graphically sometimes, about movies with his mate, Iain, on their weekly movie podcast ‘McYap And Fries’, which is available on iTunes or direct from www.mcyapandfries.com.
DAVINA GOH’s profile spans over a decade as an actor, writer, events manager, dancer, host and voice-over artiste.
Despite having no prior training or experience, she was chosen as one of 20 finalists for the first Malaysian season of talent reality show So You Think You Can Dance in 2007.
Her original short script CITIZEN 3 was professionally staged in Auckland, New Zealand under the ‘Asian Tales™: Native Alienz’ project, presented by The Oryza Foundation For Asian Performing Arts, and later selected as a Wildcard entry at Short + Sweet Auckland 2009.
Her recent stage appearances include the roles of Mother / Aunt Mary in Paula Vogel’s ‘How I Learned To Drive’ in 2008 (The Oral Stage), Jan in the Malaysian adaptation of Singaporean playwright Desmond Sim’s ‘The Swimming Instructor’ in 2009 (directed by Christopher Ling), and Texas in Pan Productions’s sellout production of Kander & Ebb’s ‘Cabaret’ at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre in May 2011.
For four months until January 2011, Davina was based in Burma as a newscaster and travel host for the country’s new English-language station, Myanmar International TV. Her stint included official news coverage of Burma’s first general elections in 20 years and the subsequent release of political prisoner Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Last year, Davina’s extensive contribution to the local entertainment industry earned her a place in Klue Magazine’s 2010 edition of its 20 Under 40 list, and Female magazine’s 50 Gorgeous People 2010: All Stars Edition. She was also selected as one of eight Malaysian ‘influencers’ to creatively re-interpret British fashion label Fred Perry’s iconic polo shirt for the MOD MEETS BOLD exhibition at the brand’s flagship store at Suria KLCC in February 2011; the tee was recently auctioned off for charity.
In her free time, Davina pursues sustainable living, animal rights, photography, sports and adventure.
Born and bred in Kuching, Sarawak, this Bidayuh graduated with a degree in Architecture from University Malaya in 2001. As a television and film actor, TONY EUSOFF’s talent extends beyond acting to television hosting as well as emceeing. In 2008, he was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor award at the Festival Filem Malaysia for his performance in the film Sepi. At the Boh Cameronian Arts Awards 2006, he was nominated for the Best Solo Performance (Voice) award for his vocal chops in Five Arts Centre’s musical production, Encore.
Tony is also regarded as Malaysia’s 10 Most Stylist Men by GLAM LELAKI magazine (2008), a nominee in the Top 5 Hot Guy award at the 8TV SHOUT Awards (2009) and voted as among the Top 50 Favourite Celebrities in OK magazine (2007).
Some of you may know DAPHNE IKING for her modeling career, some may recognize her as the host of Bella and a number of other shows in the past such as The Breakfast Show, Life As A Celebrity, IDEA Challenge and Thursday Night Live. But for the past few years she’s been flexing her acting chops both in television shows such as Ghost Season 2, Wira Waja and Sempurna as well as feature length films such as Belukar and short films such as Prelude in F Minor and Gerhana, part of the 15Malaysia project.
When she’s not hosting, modeling or performing she can usually be found either writing columns for The Star or on her blog. She is also the co-founder of 2REDchairs Online TV.
BAKI ZAINAL is a multi-talented and multi-lingual host, emcee and actor. He burst into the Malaysian entertainment scene back in 2004, when he was part of the main cast of the award-winning, popular comedy series Kopitiam.
Today, he can be spotted as an actor in another award-winning comedy series Mr.Siao’s Mandarin Class, as a host for the highly rated travel adventure show Step Forward, Amusing Race and 8TV NiteLive of 8tv, as well as in countless events as an emcee. In all his roles, Baki is able to flex his command of languages including Mandarin.
RUZANA IBRAHIM is a singer, actor and theater practitioner. She has undergone professional education in the fields of business and marketing, alongside an exposure to dancing. Her first involvement in theater was Puteri Gunung Ledang the Musical, then P. Ramlee the Musical and most recently The Secret Life of Nora Musical with Enfiniti Vision Media. She played the role of Michelle Morris and the ‘understudy’ of Deena Jones in Broadway’s Dreamgirls the Musical.
Part of a vocal trio group called Luscious, Ruzana has also hosted a talk show entitled Horee Horee bersama Musly Ramlee in 2008, besides other television roles such as ‘Cik Yasmin’ in Tari Tirana (TV3), ‘Brenda’ in ‘Crossings’ (NTV7) by Kashpictures, ‘Zana’ in Skuad D6 (TV2). For the Short n Sweet Musical Festival 2010, she was awarded as ‘Best Actress’ for her role of Emily in a Grave Matter.
ALFRED LOH can sometimes be considered a narcoleptic illiterate. Evidence points to this as he took a total amount of 3 centuries of procrastination to get this bio done. While not intentionally falling asleep on set at shoots, Alfred can be found honing his acting skills in the theatre, as he has been since beginning his adventure into acting 3 years ago.
His short attention span has also led him to dabble in various fields in the arts such as journalism, emceeing, Dj-ing as well as acoustic singing, or even establishing himself as a regular name in the KL standup comedy scene. Alfred also manages an events consultancy company which he hopes will grow to fully fund his artistic pursuits.
SHUBA JAY has always enjoyed acting during her student years but never pursued it seriously because the idea of acting professionally was too radical for her, (and bet her parents would think the same). She instead got into advertising and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications.
The thought of acting never came up after a long time. Until one day, when she was backpacking through the US, her inner voice reminded her of this deep interest. Upon her return to KL, she challenged herself to go for an audition at the Actors Studio, Dataran and she got a role! From that day on, she pursued acting seriously.
Since 2001, she’s been acting on stage, television and film passionately. Some of her leading roles are in popular Malay television shows, ‘ Spanar Jaya’, ‘ Gadis 3’, ‘ABC…123’ and numerous projects with independent film makers, such as ‘Duit Kecik’, part of the 15Malaysia project and ‘Happy Massage’, part of the HerStory project. She recently discovered that she could call herself a trilingual actress since she has also acted in Tamil, such as the local Tamil drama series called, ‘Sugumana Sumaigal’.
Apart from acting, Shuba also loves dancing and was one of choreographers who made it to the finals in the ‘Short & Sweet Dance festival 2009’. Recently she was one of the 12 contestants on a local reality dance show called ‘Mari Menari’ with her 60 year old dad and made it till the 6th round.
Her most recent work is for a Malay horror film called ‘Tokak’ and expected to be on the big screen early 2012.
Besides acting, Shuba travels the world, gets involved in volunteer work, aspires to be financially free and manages a branding agency. She was nominated the ‘Top 40 under 40 Entrepreneur award’ by Prestige Magazine in 2009.
BENJI LIM began his filmmaking career after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Electronic Media and Film from Towson University, Maryland, U.S.A. Upon returning to Malaysia, Benji along with high school buddies, Bahir Yeusuff & Arivind Abraham collaborated on a series of films such as “S’kali” (2006) and “The Joshua Tapes” (2008). Following those collaborations, Bahir and Benji were chosen as a team to produce “Meter” for “15Malaysia” which starred UMNO Youth Chief, Khairy Jamaluddin, Jason Lo, Amber Chia and Baki Zainal.
Since then, Benji has gone on to produce advertisements for Grey Worldwide’s, G2 Interactive, Teach for Malaysia and General Electric. In 2011, Benji directed the “controversial” music video “Undilah” for 15Malaysia producer, Pete Teo and joined forces once again, with longtime collaborators, Bahir Yeusuff and Khairil M. Bahar.
Relationship Status marks his screen acting debut.
Poised with her affinity for the stage and developing with pace in the Malaysian theatre fraternity, AMANDA ANG is excited to be appearing in KLPAC’s Malaysian Girls, following her performance in KLPAC’s Cartoon this year, KLPAC’s Lost and Found and EMP’s Jambalaya last year as well as most recently Malaysian Girls.
A thesp by nature with a knack for travel, Amanda has sought to share her passion for drama by engaging herself in local independent theater over the past two years. Looking ahead, Amanda is eager to enter Malaysia’s independent film scene with her debut appearance in Khairil M. Bahar’s upcoming Relationship Status early next year. Driven by her shared passion for the stage and screen, Amanda seeks to lead innovative initiatives that cultivate the Arts in Malaysia.
ADELINE ONG first fell in love with the arts when she watched the Sound of Music as a child. Realizing she will never look like any of the Von Trapp children, she wanted to be a writer or a director instead. However, in her late teens was encouraged to pursue something more ‘acceptable’ which led her to waste 2 years of her life in pre-med.
Her foray into acting came by chance (or divine intervention, whichever, you prefer) when she accidentally filled in the wrong code while applying to university. That led her to gain a degree in performing arts. However, she still tries to refine her art by studying locally and internationally when the opportunity arises.
Since 2003, Adeline has mostly dabbled in theater and was last seen prancing around on stage in 2010. Relationship Status will be her first movie.
If you’ve ever switched on a TV or gone to the theater in Malaysia then you know Susan Lankester. Apart from being one of the leads in the cast of popular Malay sitcom “2+1”, Susan has appeared in 25 telemovies, 4 films and numerous dramas and soap operas. You may have also heard her voice in numerous documentaries, local radio and television commercials and CNBC.
On stage she has performed in a number of theater productions, including ‘A Man For All Seasons’, ‘Life Sdn Bhd’, ‘Natrah’ and most recently during the Women:100 Launch performances. And when she’s not on stage or in front of the camera you’ll probably find her behind it on the production side, running her own theater and entertainment production company, Catwoman Productions.
