Eunice Elizabeth Olsen (born 24 October 1977) is a Singaporean actress, politician and beauty pageant titleholder. She

Nominated Member of Parliament A Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) is a non-partisan member of the Parliament of Singapore who is appointed by the president to contribute independent and diverse perspectives to parliamentary debates. They are not affiliated to any pol ...

and also the winner of the Miss Universe Singapore 2000 pageant. Olsen is a vocal supporter of women rights.

Early life and education

Olsen was born in Singapore. She is the only child of Alice Yap and Francis Olsen. She is a

Eurasian Singaporean Eurasian Singaporeans is a term that refers to Singaporeans of mixed European– Asian descent. The term, which includes – but is not limited to – the creole and indigenous Kristang people, who form a distinct sub-group within the E ...

; her mother is Chinese and her father is of

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

descent. Olsen speaks in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

and

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

. Her parents enrolled her in

Yamaha music school The Yamaha Music Foundation is an organization established in 1966 by the authority of the Japanese Ministry of Education for the purpose of promoting music education and music popularization. It continued a program of music classes begun by Yamaha ...

when she was three years old. She attended

Woodlands Primary School, Singapore Woodlands is a planning area and residential town located in the North Region of Singapore. As of 2019, the town has a population of 254,733. Located approximately north of the central business district (CBD), it is the densest planning ar ...

, St. Margaret's Secondary School, and the

Anglo-Chinese Junior College Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) is a junior college in Singapore that offers a two-year pre-university programme leading to the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level examination. Established in 1977, Anglo-Chinese Junior College is the ju ...

. Olsen graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

Political Science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

and

Philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

at 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 ...

Career

Miss Universe Singapore

In 2000, Olsen won the Miss Universe Singapore pageant.

Social causes

Her work with "at-risk" youth began with work at the Toa Payoh Girl's Home and the Andrew and Grace Home. In 2002, she became a member of the advisory council for the People's Association's youth movement T-Net Club (Teens Network Club). In 2001, she became a member of the Kebun Baru Youth Executive Committee. Olsen has worked with the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre and with Beyond Social Services' BABES program for pregnant teenagers. She promotes awareness of

cervical cancer Cervical cancer is a cancer arising from the cervix or in any layer of the wall of the cervix. It is due to the abnormal growth of cells that can invade or spread to other parts of the body. Early on, typically no symptoms are seen. Later sympt ...

and for the

Singapore Red Cross The Singapore Red Cross (SRC), formally the Singapore Red Cross Society, is a humanitarian aid and community services charity in Singapore. The SRC is a national member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IF ...

. She has also been a goodwill ambassador for

World Vision The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plu ...

Habitat for Humanity Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), generally referred to as Habitat for Humanity or Habitat, is a U.S. non-governmental, and tax-exempt 501(C)(3) Christian nonprofit organization which seeks to build affordable housing. The international ...

, and the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Singapore. She created the annual All Smiles Day in 2013 as a day of respite for caregivers of the Rare Disorder Society. Olsen has worked in rural

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

building sanitation facilities for evacuated communities. She co-produced a movie about sex trafficking titled ''3.50''. She developed a feminine hygiene program, Project Precious, to educate women in rural communities. The program has been adapted for use in Cambodia,

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

, and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Olsen has served as a goodwill ambassador for the Embassy of Sweden in Singapore.

Media

In 2002, Olsen was selected to be the co-host of Singapore's version of the TV game show Wheel of Fortune. She went on to co-host three seasons of ''FRONT'', an Arts Central production that examined Singapore's arts scene. In 2007, she was a judge on Channel 5's youth debate program, The Arena. She hosted ''Rouge in 2008'', a talk show concerning Singaporean women, featuring a mix of celebrity interviews and real-life stories. Olsen made her English acting debut on Channel 5's first long-form English drama, ''Red Thread'', and co-hosted a men's magazine lifestyle show on

AXN AXN is a pay television channel brand by Sony Pictures Television, which was first launched in September 1997 in Asia. Local versions have since been launched in several parts of the world, including Europe, Asia, and Latin America, with some ne ...

, The Duke. In August 2013, Olsen founded WomenTalkTV, an online talk show featuring extraordinary women from all over

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

. The show's goal is the social empowerment of Asian women. WomenTalkTV was nominated for an

International Emmy Award The International Emmy Awards, or International Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. Bestowed by the New York City, New York–based International Academy of Televisi ...

in the Digital Program: Non-Fiction category in 2014. She hosted Channel NewsAsia's "Becoming Singapore", the flagship documentary for the Singapore Bicentennial in 2019. In 2020, Olsen hosted a web documentary series, ''Mundane Glory'', which celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China for Mango TV. Olsen has represented, in various capacities, commercial brands such as Omega,

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

Electronics, Goldheart Jewelry,

Redken Redken is an American hair care brand owned by L'Oréal Group under the Professional Products division. History The company was founded in 1960 by Jheri Redding and Paula Kent, thus the name, "Red-ken." Redken pioneered the "Scientific Approac ...

, Nescafé Gold, Shell Petroleum Fuel Save Ambassador,

BlackBerry Messenger BBM, also known by its full name BlackBerry Messenger, was a consumer-oriented proprietary mobile instant messenger and videotelephony application service originally developed by BlackBerry Limited and later briefly by Indonesian company Emtek ...

, Physiogel,

L'Oréal L'Oréal S.A. () is a French multinational personal care corporation registered in Paris

Lancome Genefique,

The Body Shop The Body Shop International Limited, trading as the Body Shop, is a British cosmetics, skin care, and perfume company founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick, who opened her first store in Brighton, England. The company is now based in London Bridge ...

Politics

In November 2004, Olsen was appointed a

(NMP) in Singapore. Her main role as an NMP was to highlight issues pertaining to youth and volunteerism. In the course of her term, she touched on issues like access to public transport for the disabled, legislation for child sex tourism, enhancing supervisory guidance for voluntary welfare organisations, and sex education in schools. In the 2005 parliamentary debate on

Integrated Resort A casino hotel is an establishment consisting of a casino with temporary lodging provided in an on-premises hotel. Customers receive the benefits of both gambling facilities and lodging. Since the casino and hotel are located on the same premis ...

, Olsen called for stronger measures to address the social problems of

compulsive gambling Problem gambling, ludopathy, or ludomania is repetitive gambling behavior despite harm and negative consequences. Problem gambling may be diagnosed as a mental disorder according to DSM-5 if certain diagnostic criteria are met. Pathological ga ...

, including mandating a loss limit for casino patrons and requiring the casino operator to provide responsible

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of Value (economics), value ("the stakes") on a Event (probability theory), random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy (ga ...

counselling services. She championed inclusivity for people with disabilities and called for the captioning of the Channel 5 English news program. Olsen served two terms and remained an NMP until 2009. She did not apply for a third term in parliament.

Advisory boards

Olsen is an advisor to

Space for Humanity Space For Humanity, also known as S4H, is a non-profit organization with headquarters in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 2017 by Dylan Taylor, Space for Humanity is organizing a sponsored Citizen Astronaut Program, where leaders can apply for an oppo ...

, a non-profit organisation headquartered in

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

. She is currently a member of the

National Museum of Singapore The National Museum of Singapore is a public museum dedicated to Singaporean art, culture and history. Located within the country's Civic District at the Downtown Core area, it is the oldest museum in the country, with its history dating back to ...

's advisory board and a management committee member of Club HEAL.

Author

Olsen published the children's book "''I'm a Girl. See what I can be!"'' in 2018, which consists of a series of poems about ten women from the video series WomenTalk. The book is illustrated by 10 autistic Singaporean artists and designed by HATCH design. It was successfully crowdfunded on

Indiegogo Indiegogo is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The site is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Indiegogo allows peo ...

Speaker and moderator

Olsen has been engaged to speak globally on a wide range of topics from women's empowerment to leadership, resilience, and various social issues. She is a keynote speaker and has spoken at international events such as the Cartier Women's Awards, the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

, and LH Forum in France, as well as in educational institutions around the world such as Harvard and universities in India, and in various parts of Southeast Asia including

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

the Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of 7,641 islands, with a total area of roughly 300,000 square kilometers, which ar ...

, 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 ...

. Olsen had also moderated various forums and events with high-profile individuals such as

Helle Thorning-Schmidt Helle Thorning-Schmidt (; born 14 December 1966) is a Danish retired politician who served as the 26th Prime Minister of Denmark from 2011 to 2015, and Leader of the Social Democrats from 2005 to 2015. She is the first woman to have held each p ...

, the former

Prime Minister of Denmark The prime minister of Denmark (, , ) is the head of government in the Kingdom of Denmark comprising the three constituent countries: Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Before the creation of the modern office, the kingdom did not init ...

, and panelists from the Swedish Embassy's Disability Forum. On 6 May 2020, Olsen moderated an online webinar for

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF; pronounced ), known in some English-speaking settings as Doctors Without Borders, is a charity that provides humanitarian medical care. It is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) of French origin known for its projects in conflict zo ...

(Doctors Without Borders) titled "Live Chat on

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

: How MSF Responds to a

Pandemic A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic (epi ...

." On 31 October 2020, Olsen co-hosted the first digital edition of The Purple Parade, which was streamed live on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

Music

In university, Olsen was part of a band and was president of the Electronic Music Lab at the Centre for the Arts. In 2004, she released an album in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

entitled Believe. Olsen was part of a duo called 7 States. She was joined by music producer and sound designer Rennie Gomes of Yellowbox. Together, they have written a

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

song, produced a kids' album, and scored a short film for one of Singapore's most acclaimed film directors,

Royston Tan Royston Tan (born 5 October 1976) is a Singaporean filmmaker and actor. Tan is a graduate from Temasek Polytechnic, where he studied Visual Communications. He first came into prominence through his short films: ''Sons'' (2000), ''Hock Hiap Leong' ...

, titled ''Anniversary''. 7 States has also written a song titled "Light" that they dedicated to the athletes of the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games. 7 States recently performed, featuring Humaa Rathor, at the "From Singapore with Love" benefit concert 2011. This was in support of World Vision's earthquake relief work in China,

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

, and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Personal life

Olsen discovered through a TV program called ''My Roots'' that her great-great-grandfather Oskar Pontus Olsson was born in Röra,

Orust Orust () is an island in Bohuslän, western Sweden. In 2014 Statistics Sweden declared it to ibe the fourth largest island in Sweden, under a definition which adds artificial canals to the possible bodies of water surrounding an island. It has bee ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

in 1862. He became a sailor on ships that traveled back and forth to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He eventually settled in Malaya around 1885 and lived in Malaya for 54 years. On 20 November 1928, he was naturalised as Oscar Olsen, a British citizen in Singapore. While filming a bicentennial special of ''Becoming Singapore,'' she also learned that her grandfather from her mother's side, Yap Swee Kang, was an auxiliary fire service volunteer after

World War 2 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilisin ...

. Olsen is

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. In 2018, she filed a police complain over sexist remarks against Circles. Life advertisement, the ad, which was displayed at

Raffles Place Raffles Place is the centre of the Financial District of Singapore and is located south of the mouth of the Singapore River. It was first planned and developed in the 1820s as Commercial Square to serve as the hub of the commercial zone of Sing ...

MRT station as part of a campaign by the digital telco operator, featured the words "@euniceolsen Would you rather French Kiss or take me out for the French Film Festival?"

Filmography

Film

Television

Variety Show

Bibliography

Awards and accolades

* 2000 Miss Singapore Universe * 2006 Singapore Youth Award * 2008 ASEAN Youth Award

References

External links

Official websiteEunice Olsen Media
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Olsen, Eunice 1977 births Anglo-Chinese Junior College alumni Living people Miss Universe 2000 contestants Singaporean beauty pageant winners Singaporean Nominated Members of Parliament Singaporean people of Kristang descent Singaporean people of Chinese descent Singaporean people of Swedish descent Singaporean Roman Catholics Singaporean television actresses Singaporean television personalities Singaporean women in politics