Alaric Tay (born Tay Liang Hoong; born 26 June 1979), is a Singaporean director, producer and actor.
Early life
Tay was born in Singapore and raised in a strict Christian family. Tay would later passionately pursue entertainment as the career of his choice and graduated with a degree in film studies from
Griffith University
Griffith University is a public research university in South East Queensland on the east coast of Australia. Formally founded in 1971, Griffith opened its doors in 1975, introducing Australia's first degrees in environmental science and Asian s ...
in Australia.
He began his career in the film and television scene as an actor at the age of seventeen. He was given a supporting role in a made-in-Singapore feature film called ''That's the Way I Like It'', which was personally picked up for distribution in 1998 by
Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein (; born March 19, 1952) is an American former film producer and convicted sex offender. He and his brother, Bob Weinstein, co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced several successful independent films inclu ...
.
Acting career
Tay has taken on diverse roles over the years, including leads in tele-movies like ''
Ang Tao Mui'', ''
Adventures of Holden Heng
An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...
'', and a well-received comic turn in the dramedy, ''Money''. Alaric also played lead roles in the sitcom, The Yang Sisters Season 1 & 2 which ran on
Mediacorp's Channel 5 as well as Random Acts, which was aired on
Arts Central. His amusing physicality has provided shows like ''
Whizzes of the Void Deck''. He also played the role of a Chinese prisoner in a
Lion TV production of ''The Great Wall of China'' and the role of Daniel in the film ''Carrot Cake Conversations''.
He is also known for his role as nasal-voiced
field reporter
In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...
Andre Chichak in the
MediaCorp Channel 5
Channel 5 (Chinese: 五頻道) is a free-to-air, English-language television channel in Singapore. Owned by state broadcaster Mediacorp, it broadcasts general entertainment, news, and sports programming. The channel's logo is a big white number ...
satirical sitcom ''
The Noose''. He appeared as Kang in the 2013 HBO Asia presentation of
Serangoon Road
''Serangoon Road'' is an Australian-Singaporean television drama series which premiered on 22 September 2013 on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and HBO Asia. It is a detective noir drama set in the 1960s, revolving around Serango ...
and as James in the
Singapore Police Force
The Singapore Police Force (SPF) is the national and principal law enforcement agency responsible for the prevention of crime and law enforcement in the Republic of Singapore. It is the country's lead agency against organised crime; human, wea ...
-commissioned series ''
C.L.I.F. 3
''C.L.I.F. 3'' (''Courage, Loyalty, Integrity, Fairness'', or 警徽天职3) was a police procedural series produced by MediaCorp Singapore in 2014 in collaboration with the Singapore Police Force. It was broadcast from 9 April to 13 May 2014 on ...
'' in 2014.
Film-making career
With various performance credits to his name, Tay is also an award-winning filmmaker. His film ''When We Were Bengs'' snagged 3 prizes at the
2007 ReelHeART International Film Festival, for Best Experimental Film, Best Sound and Best Editing, while his short documentary ''Journey of Change'' has garnered critical acclaim from audiences at its special screenings in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, and the U.S.
In 2011, Tay started developing his first sci-fi action film, ''Final Defect''. The 12-minute short film, a sci-fi tale about the dangers of playing God, stars his fellow Fly Entertainment artistes US-born actor
Jimmy Taenaka
James Katsuyuki Taenaka (妙中克之 ''Taenaka Katsuyuki''; born November 27, 1964), better known as Jimmy T, is an American film and television actor.
He starred opposite the late Brandon Lee in
''Showdown in Little Tokyo'' (1991) as well as D ...
and veteran actress
Janice Koh
Janice Koh (born December 10, 1973) is a Singaporean actress and a former Nominated Member of Parliament in Singapore.
Education
Koh had her secondary school education at Singapore Chinese Girls' School. She later graduated from the Theatre S ...
and is slated for a 2012 release.
In 2018, Alaric co-produced
Zombiepura
''Zombiepura'' (), is a 2018 Singaporean horror comedy film directed by Jacen Tan. The film stars Alaric Tay and Benjamin Heng. The film was the first widely released Singaporean zombie film.
Plot
In a remote army camp, soldiers start collapsi ...
with film director,
Jacen Tan
Jacen Tan is a Singaporean independent film director, and has been named by '' The Straits Times Life!'' as one of Singapore's "most exciting young talents" and “Singapore’s latest film funnyman”.
Tan is known for his low budget films, h ...
from Hosaywood Studios under the company, JAB films. It is Alaric's first major role in a horror themed movie and Zombiepura is slated for theatrical release in late Oct 2018 in Singapore.
Other interests
A student of the late
John Spencer, and a former artiste of the
Singapore Armed Forces Music and Drama Company
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
(SAF MDC), Tay is an active member of the entertainment community. He is the Vice-President of the NP Film, Sound and Video Alumni Chapter to maintain his association with Breaking into Hollywood.
Tay is also an orator. He has hosted a variety of road shows to Dinner and Dances, to high-profile banquets involving national statesmen, politicians and
ambassadors
An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...
.
[Amazon, ''Alaric Tay'', 1 November 1990,]
Source 6
, 4 January 2012
Quote
* "The only obstacles I will truly face in this life are the ones I create for myself."
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tay, Alaric
20th-century Singaporean male actors
Singaporean film producers
Singaporean film directors
Living people
1979 births
Singaporean people of Chinese descent
Griffith University alumni
21st-century Singaporean male actors
Singaporean male film actors
Singaporean male television actors