Julie Tan

Julie Tan
Chinese name	陈欣淇
Pinyin	Chén Xīnqí (Mandarin)
Born	(1992-09-22) September 22, 1992  Malaysia
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2008 - present
Nationality	Singapore
Awards Star Awards 2015 : BottomSlim Sexiest Legs Award Star Awards 2016 : Best Supporting Actress & Rocket Star Awards 2015 - Star Awards 2016 : Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes

Julie Tan (born September 22, 1992) is a Mediacorp actress, who is based in Singapore and prominently a full-time Mediacorp artiste from 2008 to 2017 but continues to film on an ad-hoc basis. She was the female lead in That Girl in Pinafore.

Early life

Julie Tan was born in Malaysia. She received her education in Singapore, and went to Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' School and studied Drama in Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. She recently studied in New York Film Academy. In a cover story interview with 8 days magazine, she mentioned that she had acquired Singaporean citizenship and given up Malaysian citizenship.

Career

In 2008, she debuted in telemovie, The Promise as a girl with intellectual disability in 2009. She was also the first runner-up in The New Paper's New Face 1900.

In 2010, Tan was starred in television episodes, including The Illusionist, No Limits and New Beginnings. She auditioned for Alpha Entertainment in 2011, and was given a chance to be part of K-pop girl group Skarf, which she turned down.^[1] She worked together with Joanne Peh in television dramas A Tale of 2 Cities and A Song to Remember, as one of the female leads.

In 2013, she starred in movies Judgement Day and That Girl in Pinafore, in which she starred alongside Daren Tan. She became the host for A Date with K-pop Stars, which debuted on Channel U on February 21, 2014, where she travelled to South Korea^[2] and spent time with idols including Dal Shabet, Hwang Kwanghee of ZE:A, Yewon and Baby J of Jewelry, Teen Top, Rainbow, A-Jax and former H.O.T. member Moon Hee-Joon.^[3]

In 2013, Julie Tan got her first individual lead role starring in 96°C Café pairing up with Desmond Tan. In the same year, she also starred in Gonna Make It, pairing up with Xu Bin. In 2015, Julie Tan starred in The Dream Makers II as Jeanette Aw's sister and the main villain of the drama, pairing up with Zhang Zhenhuan. It was her breakthrough role and she won her first acting award starring as Dong Zihuai in the drama.

In May 2016, it was announced that Tan will take a 6-month break from acting in order to take a four-month acting course at New York Film Academy's school of acting.^[4]

In 2017, she failed to receive the Top 10 Most Popular Female Artiste Award in that year, which would be her last time attending the show. She later announced that she will be leaving Mediacorp in June 2017 to expand her career in China. Later that year, Tan was part of the National Day Parade 2017 where she will be hosting the National Day Parade 2017.

In 25 July 2018, In the wake of her love life being thrown into the spotlight following a public spat between veteran Channel 8 actresses Hong Huifang and Pan Lingling, Tan revealed that she experienced an abusive relationship in the past. Speaking to Singapore’s Chinese media on Tuesday , Tan said that she was abused physically and verbally by the unnamed boyfriend whom she dated in 2016.

The Singaporean businessman, who was older than her by 11 years, even cheated on her during the relationship, she said. That was the lowest point in her life, said Tan, and she developed an anxiety disorder and resorted to self-harm because of the abuse she suffered. Tan was responding to the media about her past relationships after it came to light that Pan Lingling allegedly advised Hong Huifang’s son, Calvert Tay, to get vaccinated against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) as he was thought to be dating Tan. Tan then posted an angry rant in an Instagram story that appeared to be directed at Pan. She wrote: "To the one talking s*** about me, you know what, f*** you. I used to respect you cause you're a qianbei but now sorry lost all respect." Pan has since apologised to Tan's mother for slandering her daughter, according to Chinese-language daily Lianhe Wanbao.

Pan Lingling allegedly told Tay to get inoculated against STDs because Tan had a Caucasian boyfriend. Hong Huifang angrily renounced her longtime friendship with Pan Lingling after finding out what she had said to Tay, sending shockwaves through Singapore’s entertainment industry. Tan brought up her past trauma to underscore the point that just because she had been through a few unsuccessful relationships did not mean that she was a promiscuous woman as Pan Lingling had implied. “I envy Pan Lingling for being lucky enough to fall in love and have a happy marriage with her first boyfriend,” said Tan. “But I wasn’t so lucky. I had to go through a few relationships to understand myself and find a right partner.” Tan said a woman’s reputation was very important, adding, “Women still face a lot of discrimination, why should women bring other women down?”

Tan said that she had been forthcoming about her love life with the media and had nothing to hide, but did not imagine that her frankness would be used against her by Pan Lingling. Tan had previously discussed her three past relationships in interviews, including those with local model Ng Yuze in 2013, and her Turkish boyfriend in 2017, who is sometimes referred to as Caucasian. She once described the abusive boyfriend from 2016 as “not romantic, but caring”. She broke up with the Turk at the end of 2017 after dating for a year because he said while proposing to her that he wanted her to be a housewife after marrying him. She declined as she wanted to focus on her career.

Filmography

Accolades

References