Lights, camera, reaction

Mr He Shuming remembers vividly the day of his A-level English Literature exam 20 years ago. As soon as he was released from the exam hall, he rushed to meet his grandmother, who was attending a casting call for a bit role in a film. She landed the role and Shuming followed her to the shoot.

“It was my first time on a film set, and the experience opened my eyes to the filmmaking industry,” recalls the filmmaker.

He shares that he found career wisdom in three teachers, an arts education, and his mum. She was the inspiration for the lead character in Ajoomma, his debut movie which was nominated for numerous awards.

Returning to her first love

At eight years old, Ms Emily Wong produced her debut album. She enjoyed music, but chose to join the badminton team CCA to try something new. Alas, her foray into sports was short-lived.

“I quit after two weeks,” she says, laughing. Then, she joined the symphonic band and also the Music Elective Programme at Nanyang Girls’ High School.

But when it was time to enrol in university, she took yet another detour to read law because “I just wasn’t brave enough at that point in time to pursue it professionally”, she says.

Now an internationally acclaimed composer, she shares why she decided to return to making music and how her career took off after some false starts.

The comeback kid

Mr Kim Whye Kee discovered his love for learning when he was behind bars. He would sign up for course after course, and go on to complete his N-Levels and obtain a Nitec in Electronics: Computer and Networking.

He also put his hand up for a class on pottery. It was a turning point in his life when he found solace at the spinning wheel…his hands, once used as fists, were now moulding objects of beauty.

Still, the road ahead was rocky after he was released from prison. But he perservered and graduated with a degree in fine arts from LASALLE College of the Arts and eventually embarked on a fulfilling career producing elegant teaware.

Singing her way to West End

In 2021, Ms Nathania Ong became the first Singaporean actress in the West End to play Eponine in Les Miserables. The role propelled her to stardom, but her path wasn’t always paved with roses.

While she has loved singing since young, she only found her groove in musical theatre when she took up a Drama elective at Anglo-Chinese Junior College. Upon graduation, she applied to all the drama schools in the UK, but was rejected by them. She returned to Singapore with a broken heart, and enrolled at LASALLE College of the Arts while continuing to look for acting opportunities, until she got her big break.

Of her setbacks, she says, “I think there’s something really exciting about a life that isn’t straightforward and isn’t exactly what you expect.”

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