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

Malaysian Malaysian may refer to: * Something from or related to Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia * Malaysian Malay, a dialect of Malay language spoken mainly in Malaysia * Malaysian people, people who are identified with the country of Malaysia regar ...

-born

Singaporean Singaporeans, or the Singaporean people, refers to citizens or people who identify with the sovereign island city-state of Singapore. Singapore is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual country. Singaporeans of Chinese, Malay, I ...

actor.

Early life

Lai studied in

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. In recent years, Nanyang Junior College has witne ...

. Thereafter, Lai went to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

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

Romeo Tan Tan Romeo (; born 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 television series ''Star Search'' in 2010 ...

and

Andie Chen Andie Chen () is a Singaporean actor, host and vlogger. He was prominently a full-time Mediacorp artist from 2007 to 2017 but continues to film on an ad hoc basis. Career Chen's first appearance on television was in the Channel 5 series '' Grow ...

. 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 public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in th ...

, 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 and Chen Tianwen. The main plot revolves around two lion dance groups pitting ...

''. In the movie, he was cast as Sam, the leader of a rivalling lion dance troupe. He was selected for the role after passing an audition during his final university semester, and was also signed with

Jack Neo Jack Neo (born 24 January 1960) is a Singaporean actor, television host, comedian and film director. He was prominently a full-time Mediacorp artiste from 1983 to 2003. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he was best known for his cross-dressing roles ...

'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, and appearing in ''

Wonderful! Liang Xi Mei ''Wonderful! Liang Xi Mei'' () is a 2018 Chinese New Year Singaporean comedy film directed by Jack Neo. It stars Neo, alongside Mark Lee, Henry Thia, Benjamin Tan, Wang Lei, Jaspers Lai, Chua Lee Lian, and Cavin Soh. The film was released on 1 ...

'' in 2018, 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 Chi ...

. It won one award for Best Costume & Makeup Design. In 2021, Lai received the Most Talented Chinese Arstiste 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 male actors Singaporean people of Hakka descent Singaporean screenwriters