Jaspers Lai Yit Hann (born 7 March 1987) is a

Singaporean Singaporeans are the citizens and nationals of the sovereign island city-state of Singapore. Singapore is home to a people of a variety of ethno-racial-religious origins, with the city-state itself being a multi-racial, multi-cultural, m ...

actor and comedian.

Early life

Lai attended

Nanyang Junior College Nanyang Junior College (NYJC) () is a junior college in Singapore next to Lorong Chuan MRT station, offering two-year pre-university courses leading up to the GCE Advanced Level examinations. Nanyang Junior College is known for its strong acad ...

. Thereafter, Lai went to

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

to be trained in acting, hosting, singing and songwriting when he was 18, and was in training for 5 years, along with

Romeo Tan Romeo Tan (born Tan Romeo on 9 April 1985) is a Singaporean actor, who has been named as one of the 8 Dukes of Caldecott Hill. Tan came into prominence after finishing in fourth place on the tenth season of the talent search series ''Star ...

and

Andie Chen Andie Chen (born Andy Tan Bang Jun on 16 June 1985) is a Singaporean actor, host and vlogger, who was a full-time Mediacorp artiste from 2007 to 2017. Career Chen's first appearance on television was in the Channel 5 series '' Growing Up'' ...

. However, the artiste management company shuttered when he was 23 before he could debut. He returned to Singapore and enrolled into

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 ...

, studying at the School of Computing.

Career

While studying in NUS, he was a VJ in in988, an internet radio station. In 2014, Lai made his film debut in ''

The Lion Men ''The Lion Men'' () is a Singapore action comedy film directed by Jack Neo and starring Tosh Zhang, Wang Weiliang, Eva Cheng, Noah Yap, Charlie Goh, Maxi Lim, Chen Tianwen, Zhang Xinxiang, Jaspers Lai, Bunz Bao, Rao Zi Jie and Celyn Liew. Th ...

''. In the movie, he was cast as Sam, the leader of a rivalling

lion dance Lion dance ( zh, s=舞狮, t=舞獅, p=wǔshī, c=, first=t) is a form of traditional dance in Culture of China, Chinese culture and other Asian countries in which performers mimic a Asiatic lion, lion's movements in a lion costume to bring good l ...

troupe and the main

villain A villain (also known as a " black hat", "bad guy" or "baddy"; The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.126 "baddy (also baddie) noun (pl. -ies) ''informal'' a villain or criminal in a book, film, etc.". the feminine form is villai ...

of the film. He was selected for the role after passing an audition during his final university semester, and was also signed with

Jack Neo Jack Neo Chee Keong (born 24 January 1960) is a Singaporean filmmaker, comedian and actor who was a full-time Mediacorp artiste from 1983 to 2003. He established a unique presence with his genuine and relatable stories that highlight societa ...

's J-team Productions. However, acting jobs were scant for Lai, with him filming a movie once a year. While attending a scriptwriting course, Lai started to develop the script, for what would eventually become the 2020 film ''Number 1'', based on his personal experiences. While developing the script still, his co-actor, Mark Lee found out about the script and immediately staked for a role in the film. After the movie was released in 2020, the film received two nominations at the

57th Golden Horse Awards The 57th Golden Horse Awards () was held on November 21, 2020 at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei, Taiwan. Organized by the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Executive Committee, the awards honored the best in Chinese-language Chin ...

. It won one award for Best Costume & Makeup Design. In 2021, Lai received the Most Talented Chinese Artiste Award (最有才华艺人奖) from the World Chinese Economic Forum.

Filmography

Film

Television series

Variety series

Discography

Singles

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lai, Jaspers 1987 births Living people Singaporean people of Hakka descent Singaporean screenwriters 21st-century Malaysian male actors 21st-century Singaporean male actors Malaysian comedians Singaporean comedians Malaysian people of Hakka descent Malaysian screenwriters Nanyang Junior College alumni National University of Singapore alumni