Andrea Fonseka (born 29 August 1984) is a Malaysian actress, TV host, model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Universe Malaysia 2004. As an actress, she is currently working predominantly in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

and

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

Personal life

Andrea Fonseka was born in Penang, Malaysia, on 29 August 1984. She is of mixed ethnic heritage. Her father is of mixed Sinhalese (Sri Lankan), Portuguese,

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

and Filipino (Eurasian) descent and a native Penangite, while her mother is of

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

descent and

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

ancestry from

Ipoh Ipoh (, ) is the capital city of the Malaysian States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Perak. Located on the Kinta River, it is nearly north of Kuala Lumpur and southeast of George Town, Penang, George Town in neighbouring Penang ...

Perak Perak (; Perak Malay: ''Peghok'') is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Perak has land borders with the Malaysian states of Kedah to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kel ...

. She is the youngest of four daughters and currently lives and works in

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. She studied at SMK(P) Taman Petaling (Taman Petaling Girls' National Secondary School) in

Petaling Jaya Petaling Jaya (), colloquially referred to as "PJ", is a city in Petaling District, in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. Originally developed as a Satellite city, satellite township for Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, it is part of the G ...

during her secondary school years. She also holds a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

from the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University ...

. Fonseka married Australian lawyer Paul Dewar on 31 July 2010, in Kuala Lumpur.

Career

Fonseka first came to the public's attention when she hosted the first season of Xfresh.tv, a teen program produced by Malaysia's

Astro TVIQ Astro TVIQ (formerly known as TVIQ) was an English-language (formerly both hybrid language Malay-language and English-language) channel. This channel was free as it was grouped under the Astro Family package. The viewership target was for childr ...

. In 2004, Andrea followed in her mother's footsteps,

Josephine Lena Wong Datin Josephine Wong Jaw Leng Fonseka (born 1 January 1952) is a Malaysian former model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Malaysia Universe 1970. She represented her country at the 19th Miss Universe in Florida, United State ...

, and won the Miss Malaysia Universe title.Former Miss Malaysia shares KL's best-kept shopping secret
Felix Cheong,

Asiaone AsiaOne.com is a Singaporean news and lifestyle website and news aggregator. It is Singapore's first pure play digital content platform, serving readers primarily in Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. AsiaOne was launched in 1995 by Singapore ...

, 18 October 2008. She subsequently represented Malaysia in

Miss Universe 2004 Miss Universe 2004 was the 53rd Miss Universe pageant, held at the Centro de Convenciones CEMEXPO in Quito, Ecuador on 1 June 2004. At the end of the event, Amelia Vega of the Dominican Republic crowned Jennifer Hawkins of Australia as Miss U ...

, in

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. After the pageant, Andrea relocated to

to study

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

at the

. She graduated with a

from NUS in 2008. Shortly after moving to Singapore, Andrea became an ambassador for Marie France Bodyline and appeared on numerous magazine covers, including FHM Singapore. This exposure led her to becoming a host on

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

's and then suitcase girl number 10 in ''

Deal or No Deal ''Deal or No Deal'' is the name of several closely related television game shows, the first of which (launching the format) was the Dutch '' Miljoenenjacht'' (''Hunt/Chase for Millions''). The centerpiece of this format is the final round (a ...

'' on

Mediacorp Mediacorp Pte. Ltd. is the state media, state-owned media conglomerate of Singapore. Owned by Temasek Holdings—the investment arm of the Government of Singapore—it owns and operates television channels, radio, and digital media properties. ...

Channel 5. Following the success of Deal or No Deal, Channel 5 invited Andrea to co-host the live TV singing contes
Live The Dream
with Utt and Michelle Chia. Andrea subsequently moved into acting, starring in small parts in

Maggi & Me ''Maggi & Me'' () is a Singaporean fantasy situation comedy that airs on Mediacorp Channel 5. The English-language series debuted 25 July 2006 and stars Fiona Xie and Adrian Pang in the title roles. The series wrapped up its season 1 finale on ...

and Parental Guidance, and then landing major roles in Housemates, the channel 5 drama

En Bloc En bloc means "all together". It may refer to: * '' En Bloc'', a Singaporean television drama * A type of ammunition loading in firearms {{disambiguation ...

and the feature fil
Carrotcake Conversations
Andrea was voted the world's sexiest woman in FHM Singapore's 100 Sexiest Women in the World for 2007. She won No.1 ranking for the second time in 2008, making her the first repeat winner for FHM's Top 100 Sexiest.

2009–present

Andrea was inducted into the Miss Malaysia Universe Hall of Fame in 2009,About MUMO
, retrieved 7 April 2011. recognizing her success and contribution in the regional entertainment industry. In 2010, Fonseka became the Face of the Malaysia International Fashion Week, and fronting the Fashion-TV program. Fonseka was the National Director for Miss Universe Malaysia from 2010 until 2013.Andrea Fonseka, National Director
, retrieved 7 April 2011.

Filmography

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fonseka, Andrea Malaysian people of Kristang descent People from Ipoh Malaysian people of Cantonese descent 1984 births Living people Malaysian beauty pageant winners Malaysian people of Portuguese descent Malaysian people of Filipino descent Malaysian people of Spanish descent Malaysian people of Sri Lankan descent Malaysian people of Chinese descent Miss Universe 2004 contestants National University of Singapore alumni People from Penang