Kathleen de Leon Jones (born Kathleen de León on 1 September 1977) is a Filipina-born

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

actress, dancer, and singer. She was an original cast member of the

ARIA Award The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

winning Australian children's musical group Hi-5. She left Hi-5 in July 2007 after nine years with the group.

Personal life

De León was born in

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

on 1 September 1977 and moved to Australia in 1978 with her parents. She is the oldest of three daughters; her two younger sisters Jennifer and Melanie were born in Australia. The family spent most of de León's childhood in Sydney."Another Pinay goes international." ''Manila Standard Today'', 28 December 2006. On 30 April 2000, when de León was 22 years old, she met her future husband Daniel Jones. At the time, Jones was a member of the Australian pop band

Savage Garden Savage Garden was an Australian pop duo consisting of Darren Hayes on vocals and Daniel Jones on instruments. Formed in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1993, the duo achieved international success from the mid-1990s to early 2000s with the No. ...

. The couple met at the 42nd Annual TV Week Logie Awards. In 2003, after over three years of dating, Jones proposed to de León during his 30th birthday party at the GPO Bar in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

. Over one hundred attendees—including Jones' parents—were "shocked" by the surprise proposal. On 9 October 2005, de León and Jones married at ''Avica Weddings and Resort'' on the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

in Queensland. de León's wedding dress was designed by Bora of ''Bora Couture'' while one of de León's friends designed a

pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

set for the back of the gown and diamond pieces for the front. Jones wrote a song titled "Love Is Enough" for his bride. On 25 February 2006, de León confirmed that she was four months pregnant. The couple's first child, Mikayla, was born on 26 July 2006. On 30 October 2010, de León gave birth to the couple's second child.

Professional career

De León started singing and dancing at an early age. She taught herself to play the guitar, prompting her parents to enrol her in The McDonald College, an exclusive

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...

school in Sydney, Australia. She was awarded both the ''Roberta Armstrong'' and ''Kelloggs'' Scholarships to study at the school, where she studied dance, drama, and

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production in ...

for a number of years while making professional auditions in her spare time. De León also trained with the Australian College of Entertainment in

Castle Hill, New South Wales Castle Hill is a suburb of Greater Western Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, located 34 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district and 9.5 kilometres north of Parramatta. It is within the Hills District, New South ...

. She also competed in the Australian television talent show ''

New Faces ''New Faces'' is a British television talent show that aired in the 1970s and 1980s. It has been hosted by Leslie Crowther, Derek Hobson and Marti Caine. It was produced for the ITV network by ATV, and later by Central. Original series: 197 ...

''—where she came third in the grand final—and appeared on various Australian television shows, including ''

Heartbreak High ''Heartbreak High'' is an Australian television program created by Michael Jenkins and Ben Gannon that ran from 1994 to 1996 on Network Ten and 1997 to 1999 on the ABC, for seven series. It was also partially funded from 1996 by BBC2, with so ...

'', ''

Ridgey Didge ''Ridgey Didge'' was a popular Network Ten magazine television programme for children in Australia. The name is an Australian slang term meaning honest, true or the real thing. Format A long-running series of 52-minute programmes, each stud ...

'', '' Swap Shop'', and the ''At Home Show'' with

John Mangos John (born 9 July 1956) is an Australian news presenter. Mangos has previously been a news presenter on Sky News Australia. He has also made cameo appearances on the Australian comedy programs ''Pizza (TV series), Pizza'', ''Swift and Shift C ...

. It was while she was performing at a

fundraiser Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

for The McDonald College that de León was discovered by one of the directors for the Cameron MacIntosh company. She appeared in two musicals in Australia mounted by the Macintosh company, ''

Miss Saigon ''Miss Saigon'' is a stage musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera ''Madame Butterfly'', and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed rom ...

'' and ''

Rent Rent may refer to: Economics *Renting, an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property *Economic rent, any payment in excess of the cost of production *Rent-seeking, attempting to increase one's share of e ...

''. She stayed with the cast of Rent (where she was Christine Anu's

understudy In theater, an understudy, referred to in opera as cover or covering, is a performer who learns the lines and blocking or choreography of a regular actor, actress, or other performer in a play. Should the regular actor or actress be unable to ap ...

for the role of Mimi) Note: Article is published across three pages. and was dance captain for the musical, until being cast in '' Hi-5'' in 1998. She featured with a puppet named "Jup-Jup", voiced originally by co-cast member Tim Harding. de León and Jup-Jup's segment of the show, ''Puzzles and Patterns'', promoted and educated children on problem solving and mathematics.

Departure from Hi-5

In July 2007, de León left Hi-5 permanently to focus on raising Mikayla. de León stated that she was still interested in working on television, but only if an opportunity existed in her then-home of Sydney so she could remain close to her family. de León was the first of all the original members to permanently leave '' Hi-5''.

Sun Park Sun Park (born 3 January 1981) is a Korean-Australian singer, actress, entertainerHerald SuReplacement Wins Crowd Over Reported 19 June 2006. Retrieved 17 July 2007. and former member of the children's entertainment group Hi-5 as well as the ...

replaced de León in Hi-5. As of 2018 de León resides in Las Vegas. In November 2016, while in the process of selling some properties in Surfers Paradise, she stated that they would one day look to move back to the Gold Coast.

References

External links

Hi-5 Official WebsiteHi-5 on NineMSN
* {{DEFAULTSORT:de León Jones, Kathleen 1977 births 21st-century Australian singers 21st-century Australian women singers Australian actresses of Asian descent Australian children's musicians Australian expatriates in the United States Australian female dancers Australian people of Filipino descent Australian television actresses Australian television personalities Filipino emigrants to Australia Living people Musicians from Manila Actresses from Sydney Women television personalities Actresses from Manila Musicians from Sydney