Jason Keng-Kwin Chan (born December 1, 1971) is a

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 ...

-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 Aus ...

actor best known for his role as Cameron Watanabe, the Green Samurai Ranger, as well as his clone, Cyber Cam, in '' Power Rangers: Ninja Storm''. He is currently a multi-award-winning writer, director, composer and actor based in Singapore. He is co-founder of BananaMana Films, a Singaporean studio that produces Asian dramas in English for global distribution.

Background & Training

Born in

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

, Chan 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 moved to

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Western Australia with his family when he was only 5 years old. He entered medical school at the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

, but Chan continued to pursue the creative arts, studying

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

contemporary dance Contemporary dance is a genre of Concert dance, dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly stron ...

, and

jazz dance Jazz Dance is a performance dance and style that arose in the United States in the early 20th century. Jazz Dance may allude to vernacular Jazz, Broadway or dramatic Jazz. The two types expand on African American vernacular styles of dance that ...

at the

Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) at Edith Cowan University (ECU) is a performing arts school in Perth, Western Australia. Established in 1980, it is notable for being the most comprehensive performing arts school in Aus ...

. After graduating, he obtained his Fellowship in General Practice and worked as a General Practitioner for a few years before attending the

National Institute of Dramatic Art The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) is an Australian educational institution for the performing arts based in Sydney, New South Wales. Founded in 1958, it offers bachelor's, master's and vocational degrees in subjects including acting ...

(NIDA) in Sydney, where he obtained a Bachelor of Dramatic Arts in Acting. He co-founded BananaMana Films with Christian Lee. Chan currently resides in

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 ...

Current Work

Since co-founding BananaMana Films, Jason has gone on to write, direct, edit and produce for various projects. The first series he co-wrote, directed, produced and acted in was a web series: "What Do Men Want?". However, prior to production the national broadcaster of Singapore asked to have it converted into a full-length TV series and it aired in 2014 as a 13 x half hour Romantic comedic TV drama. Jason and Christian won an outstanding directing in a drama series award at LA Webfest for this drama. Their second drama "Perfect Girl" was created as a 10 x 5-8min web series. This series went on to win 7 international awards from 16 nominations. Jason was credited as writer and composer, and shared directing and editing credits. Recently, Jason has co-written, directed and scored a TV pilot "Bang Bang Club" which has gone on to win a Platinum REMI award at the Worldfest Houston International Film Festival 2016. Jason was also nominated for Best Editing and Best Original Score for this project at the Indie Series Awards (LA) 2016.

Awards

Jason has been a recipient of numerous awards and nominations in various categories: writing, directing, acting, editing, composing. Awards * Platinum Remi (Houston International Film Fest 2016) * Outstanding Writing (LA Webfest 2015) * Outstanding Directing (LA Webfest 2015) * Outstanding Editing (LA Webfest 2015) * Outstanding Drama Series (LA Webfest 2015) * Outstanding Drama (Toronto Webfest 2015) * Best International Series (Atlanta Webfest 2014) Nominations * Best Editing (Indie Series Awards 2016) * Best Score (Indie Series Awards 2016) * Outstanding Lead Actor (LA Webfest 2015) * Outstanding Cinematography (LA Webfest 2015) * Triple Threat Auteur (Toronto Webfest 2015) * Best Overall Series (Toronto Webfest 2015) * Best Drama (Vancouver Webfest 2015)

Film

Most recently "Perfect Girl", originally a web series, was picked up as a short feature by global streaming platform VIKI.com. It stars Jason Chan and Khaleila Hisham as the leads and won them both Outstanding Acting nominations and awards in US web series festivals. His feature film credits include: the animated feature ''Sing to the Dawn''. where he played the villain, and ''

The Leap Years ''The Leap Years'' (also known as ''Leap of Love'') is a Singapore film produced by Mediacorp Raintree Pictures, based on the novella ''Leap of Love'' by the author Catherine Lim. The production for the film started in 2005, and the film was in ...

'' in which he plays the role of "Raymond" alongside

Ananda Everingham Ananda Everingham (; born 31 May 1982) is a Thai actor and model. Working primarily in Thai films, he is best known for his lead role in the 2004 horror film, '' Shutter''. Biography Ananda Matthew Everingham is the son of a Laotian-born moth ...

and

Wong Li-Lin Wong Li Lin (born 30 August 1972) is a Singaporean media personality and businesswoman. She was formerly an actress and host on Singaporean television. Early life and education Wong is born to Wong Chee Kit, a carpenter and furniture company ...

. He appeared briefly in ''

Candy Candy, alternatively called sweets or lollies, is a Confectionery, confection that features sugar as a principal ingredient. The category, also called ''sugar confectionery'', encompasses any sweet confection, including chocolate, chewing gum ...

'', an Australian film, as

Heath Ledger Heath Andrew Ledger (4 April 1979 – 22 January 2008) was an Australian actor. After playing roles in several Australian television and film productions during the 1990s, he moved to the United States in 1998 to further develop his film care ...

's doctor and very briefly in "Stealth" as one of the technicians. He co-wrote, co-produced and co-directed the 2017 cross-cultural food film '' Jimami Tofu'' with Christian Lee, where it world premiered and won the Audience Choice Award at the 37th

Hawaii International Film Festival Hawaii ( ; ) is an island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only state not on the North American mainland, th ...

Television

In 2014, Jason appeared as co-lead in "What Do Men Want?" - a 13 x half hour romantic drama co-created and directed by himself and his business partner Christian Lee. The drama won them both an Outstanding Directing award at LA Webfest 2016 and aired on national TV in Singapore in 2014. On graduating from drama school, Chan appeared as host of

Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...

Playhouse Disney Playhouse Disney was a brand of programming blocks and international cable and satellite television channels that were owned by the Disney Channels Worldwide unit (now Disney Branded Television) of The Walt Disney Company's Disney–ABC Tele ...

block which aired throughout Australia. In 2003, he then garnered a role as the Green Samurai Ranger, Cameron Watanabe, in the American TV series: ''

Power Rangers Ninja Storm ''Power Rangers Ninja Storm'' is a television series and the eleventh season of the ''Power Rangers'' franchise, based on the 26th Super Sentai series '' Ninpu Sentai Hurricaneger''. The season marked a series of firsts in the franchise, being ...

''. In

he has appeared in many

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 and Art Central productions including: ''My Sassy Neighbour'', ''Six Weeks'', ''Parental Guidance'', ''9 Lives'', Mental and ''The Secret Lives of Sorry Stars.'' In Australia he played opposite Jaqueline Macqenzie in ''

Two Twisted ''Two Twisted'' is an Australian TV mystery anthology drama which premiered on the Nine Network on 14 August 2006. Narrated by Bryan Brown, who also produced the series' predecessor, ''Twisted Tales'', each episode of the series contains two sho ...

''. Jason has also played leads in German telemovies including: ''Love in the Lion City'' (2009), ' (2010), ' (2013) and ''

House of Harmony ''House of Harmony'' () is a 2005 S$7 million German-Singaporean telemovie. Jointly produced by 4 parties - Germany's FFP Media and ZDF Pictures, together with Singapore's Oak 3 Films and Media Development Authority (MDA), the telemovie was shot ...

'' (2005).

Theatre

In theatre, Jason debuted in the lead role of 'Kevin' in "Connie and Kevin and the Secret Life of Groceries" in Sydney, then continued in Singapore with ‘Chris’ in Action Theatre's “The Admiral’s Odyssey”, Clifford Bradshaw in Toyfactory's "Cabaret", Lysander in SRT's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Andy in SRT's "The Office Party", Claudio in SRT's "Much Ado About Nothing" and Marc in The Ensemble Theatre's production of "ART".

References

External links

* http://www.BananaManaFilms.com * http://www.aadb.com.sg/jason/ * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chan, Jason 1971 births 21st-century Australian male actors Australian expatriates in Singapore Australian people of Chinese descent Australian people of Malaysian descent Living people Malaysian emigrants to Australia Malaysian people of Chinese descent National Institute of Dramatic Art alumni University of Western Australia alumni People who lost Malaysian citizenship Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts alumni