Zoe Tay (; born 10 January 1968) is a
Singapore
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 ...
an actress and former model. She has been referred to as the "Queen of
Caldecott Hill
Caldecott Hill is a private housing estate, located along Thomson Road in the Central Region of Singapore. It is tied to the growth of the media industry in Singapore.
In the past, Singapore's broadcast station, Mediacorp was located there. The ...
" and "Ah Jie" (Top Actress) by the local media since the rise of her popularity in the 1990s. She is one of the first batch of actors to receive the
Star Awards All-Time Favourite Artiste award, along with
Li Nanxing
Jonathan Lee Nam Heng (born 7 November 1964), better known as Li Nanxing (), is a Singaporean actor and was named as 'Ah-Ge' (大哥, "big brother") of Caldecott Hill. He is also a film director and producer.
Li has acted in many Chinese-lang ...
and
Chew Chor Meng
Chew Chor Meng (born 20 November 1968), better known as Zhou Chuming, is a Singaporean actor. He is one of the first batch of actors to receive the All-Time Favourite Artiste award with Zoe Tay & Li Nanxing.
Career
Chew started his career in ...
.
To date, Tay has received four
Star Awards for Best Actress
The Star Awards for Best Actress is an award presented annually at the Star Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1994.
The category was introduced in 1995, at the 2nd Star Awards ceremony; Fann Wong received the award for her role in ''Chr ...
- a record for most number of wins in the category.
Early life
Tay is the sixth of seven children born to
Teochew parents. She was three when her biological mother died in an accident. Her father remarried and had a daughter with Wong Pong Chin.
Her father worked at a pig farm in Lim Chu Kang while her stepmother was a housewife. Tay attended Kay Hua Primary School and later,
Yuan Ching Secondary School,
where she completed her O-level examinations. She studied fashion design at the Baharuddin Vocational Institute.
When she was 13, she thought of using "Jenny" as her English name as people pronounced her hanyu pinyin surname Zheng as "Jenny". However her siblings didn't like it. She later found the name "Zoe" in a dictionary.
Career
Tay started out as a model at the age of 16. In 1987, she was named Model of The Year. After Tay was crowned champion of the inaugural
Star Search
''Star Search'' was an American television show that was produced by T.P.E./ Rysher Entertainment from 1983 to 1995, hosted by Ed McMahon, and created by Al Masini. A relaunch was produced by 2929 Productions from 2003 to 2004. On both versio ...
in 1988, she was offered a 3-year contract with the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), now known as
MediaCorp
Mediacorp Pte. Ltd., doing business as Mediacorp and stylised as mediacorp, is a media conglomerate in Singapore. Owned by Temasek Holdings—the holding company of the Government of Singapore—it owns television, radio, and digital media prope ...
. While Tay had initially disliked acting, she began feeling passionate for her craft after her role in ''Crime and Passion'' in 1991. Her breakthrough performance as a materialistic young woman in ''Pretty Faces'' catapulted her into stardom. Her popularity was affirmed with a Top 10 Most Popular Female Artiste Award at the Star Awards every year for ten consecutive years since its inception in 1994. In 1996, Zoe won the Best Actress award for her role in The Golden Pillow at the annual Star Awards. In 2004, she was the first actress to have been awarded the prestigious
All-Time Favourite Artiste. Zoe was the first female artiste to launch a coffee table book titled "Zoe's Coffee Table", commissioned by
MediaCorp
Mediacorp Pte. Ltd., doing business as Mediacorp and stylised as mediacorp, is a media conglomerate in Singapore. Owned by Temasek Holdings—the holding company of the Government of Singapore—it owns television, radio, and digital media prope ...
.
Other than television series, Tay also forayed into films. In 2010, she starred opposite Hong Kong actor
Kenny Ho
Kenny Ho Kar-king (born 29 December 1959) is a Hong Kong actor and Cantopop/Mandopop singer. He was best known for his role as Zhan Zhao in the Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese television series '' Justice Bao'' from 1993 to 2012, and is also known ...
in ''Love Cuts'', playing the role of a terminally ill woman who has breast cancer. In 2013, she appeared in her first fully English-speaking role in ''
Mister John'' with Irish star
Aidan Gillen
Aidan Murphy (born 24 April 1968), better known as Aidan Gillen (), is an Irish actor. He is the recipient of three Irish Film & Television Awards and has been nominated for a British Academy Television Award, a British Independent Film Award, a ...
.
Tay has collaborated with many artistes in her various projects. Her on-screen chemistry with Li Nanxing in ''The Unbeatables'' and other serials has put them in the list of the Top 5 Best Onscreen Couples at the Star Awards 25th Drama Anniversary show. In 2015, she collaborated for the first time with
Huang Biren
Huang Biren (born 7 March 1969) is a Singaporean actress best known for appearing in numerous MediaCorp Channel 8 television dramas. She was prominently a full-time Mediacorp artiste from 1988 to 2008, but continues to film on an ad-hoc basis.
...
, in ''The Dream Makers II''.
Due to her contributions to the television industry in Singapore, a wax figurine was modelled after her by
Madame Tussauds Singapore
Madame Tussauds Singapore is a wax museum and tourist attraction at the Imbiah Lookout of Sentosa Island in Singapore. It officially opened on 25 October 2014 as the seventh Asian branch of the Madame Tussauds chain of wax attractions worldwide.
...
, and has been on display in the museum since 2014.
Tay won her second Best Actress at the
Star Awards 2017
Star Awards 2017 (also SA2017, Chinese: 红星大奖2017) is a television award ceremony which is held in Singapore. It is part of the annual Star Awards organised by Mediacorp for free-to-air channels Channels 8 and U. The Road to Star Awards ...
for ''
You Can Be an Angel 2'', 21 years after her first.
At the
Star Awards 2021
Star Awards 2021 (Chinese: 红星大奖2021) is a television award ceremony held in Singapore on 18 April 2021, to honour the best Singaporean television, released between January 2019 and December 2020. The ceremony was delayed for a year due t ...
, Tay won her fourth Best Actress award for the drama, ''
My Guardian Angels,'' becoming the first actress to win two consecutive Best Actress awards.
Personal life
Tay is married to Philip Chionh, a former
Republic of Singapore Air Force
The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) is the aerial service branch of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) responsible for controlling and defending the airspace of the country, and providing air support to the Army and Navy. It was establish ...
pilot. They were engaged in 1995 at the peak of her career, and held their wedding ceremony in 2001 at a church wedding and western-styled dinner at Ritz Carlton Hotel. They have 3 sons together: Brayden, Ashton and Nathan.
Filmography
Discography
Studio albums
Compilation albums
Awards and nominations
References
External links
*
* at
Mediacorp
Mediacorp Pte. Ltd., doing business as Mediacorp and stylised as mediacorp, is a media conglomerate in Singapore. Owned by Temasek Holdings—the holding company of the Government of Singapore—it owns television, radio, and digital media prope ...
*
Zoe Tayat
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tay, Zoe
1968 births
Living people
20th-century Singaporean actresses
21st-century Singaporean actresses
Singaporean film actresses
Singaporean television actresses
Singaporean people of Teochew descent
Singaporean female models
20th-century Singaporean women singers
21st-century Singaporean women singers