Shawn Thia Dropped Out Of School At 15 (With His Mum’s Blessing), Joined The Army At 16, Worked Odd Jobs, & Is Now One Of Singapore's Most Promising Actors

We weren’t really sure what to expect before our interview with local actor Shawn Thia. 

Would he be more like the spoiled and arrogant Damien Goh in long-form English drama Sunny Side Up? Or as charming as wayang opera prodigy Ah Zai in Titoudao: Inspired By The True Story Of A Wayang Star? Or as tortured as Chris... (or is it Jon?) in mystery-thriller Reunion? 

Truth is, the 26-year-old is more like that guy every girl had a crush on in school, the guy who is as nice as he is good-looking. We mean, he even offers to buy us lunch when we meet for our chat in late-June. (Sorry everyone, he is already engaged.)

He had just come from filming Sunny Side Up. He's actually on his break and suggested we grab a meal at Jimmy Monkey Cafe & Bar near the Mediacorp Campus. The staff would later tell us that they've seen him come by a few times already.

"He's an actor, right?" one of them asks.

We don't blame the guy for asking.

Shawn may be one of the most prolific young actors working today — he's been in almost every new English production and can now be seen competing to be a top live streamer as part of Mark Lee's team in reality show, Streamers Go Live — but he's not famous like say, Desmond Tan yet.

But that, we predict, will change soon. 

For starters, he has a really interesting origin story. P/S: For someone as young as Shawn, he has a lot of compelling anecdotes to share about his life, making him a fascinating interviewee. 

Here’s the really abridged version of how Shawn Thia the actor came into being: He dropped out of secondary school at the age of 15, after his single-parent mum suggested he do so. She extolled in him the importance of being a person with a good character, and so he went on to do odd jobs for a year, before sitting for his O Levels as a private candidate. He didn’t do well.

Half a year later, he enlisted in the army at the age of 16. After that, he did a private diploma in mass communications in MDIS, before deciding to try his hand at acting in 2015, landing a number of commercial shoots and roles in student films.

Two years later, he decided to take a job in the marine industry running offshore operations as he wanted a stable job.

Then in 2019, he got his first big break, landing that role in Titoudao.

And for the full story? You’ll have to read on.

Definitely not a typical backstory.

The biggest question on everyone’s mind right now would probably be: Why did he drop out of school at 15?

Shawn, who attended Hougang Primary, before going on to Yio Chu Kang Secondary, says:

"I wasn't a rebellious kid, to be honest, but I was someone who had my own thoughts lah. And there were a lot of things that I didn't agree with back in my school. I also felt that the school's discipline team was picking on me. And as a growing young man, I just decided to call it quits,” he says.

Shawn who was originally in the Express stream, was placed in the Normal Academic stream in Secondary 3 after being “too playful” the year before.

He says he was initially "full of drive" to excel in his studies, and was doing “quite well" academically before dropping out around March or April that year.

“I remember there was one incident where the discipline master said my hair was too long. After I went to cut it, he said it's too short and too fashionable. What do you mean by too short?!” he recalls.

Shawn adds that he was suspended from school 'cos of this incident.

"Back then, ‘cos my mum's a single working mum, she had to come pick me up every day ['cos of these incidents]. My mother was busy at that time, and she couldn't take it. She came down, and I remember the first thing she did, she opened the door, threw the car key on the table, and told me to go out and start the car.

I went out, but before the door closed, I heard her just destroy my discipline master, with all sorts of language and vulgarities that I've never heard at home. Hokkien, Cantonese, English, Chinese too. When she came out of the room, she was like, 'Son, let's not be here anymore.’ And that's when I thought that yeah, I think I've had enough."

He's not playing around.

Shawn’s parents divorced when he was still a toddler. The actor, who hasn’t been in contact with his father for the past 10 years, shares that his mum was the one who provided for him and his older sister. His mother is retired now but used to run her own business doing post-natal massages.

However, it wasn’t like Shawn’s mother was giving him a free pass to just enjoy life as a teenager who didn’t have to attend school anymore.

She gave him two options: either enrol again in a different school, or join the workforce.

"So I went to work. I think I did a bit of construction, I did a bit of everything, as a waiter, and also [working] at a factory. You name it, I've probably done most of it,” he says.

The thought of moving onto another secondary school never really interested him.

"I just felt like maybe my path doesn't have to be the same as everyone else,” he says, adding: "I wanted to prove a lot of people wrong also. That you don’t have to really have a super solid education to make it. You just have to know how to be a good person.”

Striking out on his own.

8DAYS.SG: Your mum was the one who suggested you to drop out of school. That's something that a lot of parents in Singapore wouldn't do, right?

SHAWN THIA: Yeah… let’s put it this way. The perfect Singaporean blue print is for you to get into a good primary school, then do your O levels, then go to a JC or polytechnic, and then university.

But my mum doesn't believe in that. I think, on hindsight right, what's cool about my mum is that she always tells me, 'It's okay if you're not good at studying, what's important is that you have to be a good person.’ She cares more about my character than my academics, which I felt was very vital for me growing up.

She would make sure that if I could not cope, [like] in [my] studies, she would want me to do something else. Go to church, do some volunteering, to build character. My mum's cool in that sense. Also maybe 'cos she just gave up lah. 'Aiyah this kid confirm cannot lah’ (laughs).

You went on to take your O Levels as a private candidate? Was it hard to do well as a private candidate?

It's very hard! You must have the discipline to study. You don't have classes and you don't have teachers to spur you on. So all you can do is to track your own progress, do the Ten Year Series and think that you would definitely be fine. In the end, I only passed three out of five subjects.

What subjects were they?

English, and I barely passed my Chinese. I got a C6. My Chinese was so horrible, I don't even know how I passed. And then science. I took chemistry and biology.

How about the subjects you liked in school?

I liked history. But as a private candidate, there's no history. There’s nobody out there teaching history to a private candidate. Even if there’s one, it's too expensive.

All my savings and all my allowance from my mother was spent on tuition when I was 16, so I couldn't afford that. But my favourite subject was history. I hated maths. Maths sucks.

Army Daze.

You enlisted in the army after that?

At 16, I did my O Levels, and got the results in January or February. In December the same year, I enlisted.

So it was mono-intake? They say NS tends to be tougher for those in mono intakes.

Yeah, it was really harsh. Mono-intakers get it worse. Plus when I enlisted, I was the youngest, and my birthday is in December too. If I'm not wrong, this general actually told me that I could probably be the youngest ever, in SAF, to enlist.

What was your vocation?

I was in 1st Guards. It was very mentally draining. Okay, it’s not like I'm praising myself, but as someone from a single-parent family right, I tend to be a bit more sensitive, and I think I'm a bit more mature than my peers.

So when I enlisted, I felt like I was doing okay mentally, but physically I had a lot of issues. I had to undergo two operations, due to training exercises, all the accidents, and heavy load, wear and tear.

What happened?

There was once I tore my ankle. There's this tendon called the peroneal tendon and mine snapped into two.

I couldn't walk for a while. Even today, like, after almost 10 years, it's still very stiff.

And then my hip area, there's a band called the ITB (iliotibial band), it’s a tendon that runs down the pelvic area. That also snapped, probably eight months after [the first ankle injury]. I thought I was recovered, so I went back to training. But when your ankle is not strong enough, you overcompensate with another part of your body. so that part of the body also snap lor.

How did you get into acting then?

I enrolled into MDIS for a diploma in mass communication after my ORD. After that, on the day of my last paper, I knew I was going to enter in the workforce very soon, at 20. I checked my bucket list, and it was like, ‘Okay, I really want to appear in a movie’.

That was a dream of mine, and then I just gathered a few friends, took a few headshots, wrote a short film, posted it on YouTube, and then I just used it as my portfolio.

Then I went on Facebook and just applied for every single casting call. I just kept trying, and luck was on my side 'cos a lot of production houses gave me a lot of chances. But it was mainly TV commercials, which didn’t require any acting.

You name it, he's done it. Probably.

You then left acting to work in the marine industry in 2017. What was up with that?

My first audition was for a television commercial, and I was accepted on the spot. The pay for the one-day shoot was $2,700, and I was like 'Wow, I can definitely keep doing this, it’s easy'. Of course, I was very wrong lah 'cos that only happened that one time.

I just kept doing small projects after that, those that don't pay you well, or even like student projects to try and earn money. In 2017, I wanted to have a bit of stability 'cos back then I was dating someone, who was older than me, and had a very stable job. So I started driving Uber back when it was a thing. That was the only way I could earn money.

Then, one day, a friend called and introduced me to my ex-manager, who asked me down for an interview. And then I think he really liked me. He straight up offered a very good salary and never even asked about my experience. Did I know anything about [the] marine [industry]? I said no, you know. But he just didn't care. And that started my almost three years in the marine line.

What was your job scope?

I was running a lot of offshore operations. So I managed projects, on a project basis. It's very technical, but when a ship has to transfer gas oil or crude oil, they have to go through this thing called a ship to ship transfer.

It's basically a controlled collision between two ships, so it's a very dangerous manoeuvre. My job was to coordinate the whole procedure.

I would constantly be working either at home or in the office, but here and there I would just go out on the vessel to take a look. But I tried not to lah 'cos it was very dangerous.

Sounds like the job had a steep learning curve.

The learning curve was very steep, but after a while, you're essentially doing the same job over and over again. It was a very stable job. The salary was good, much more than what someone with my education level and with no experience could ask for, but it was...

It got boring after a while. So when things got stable, when I could manage my own schedule and jobs and everything, I went back into acting again as a part-timer. I told my boss, and he gave me the go-ahead.

Was there a big acting project waiting for you?

Yeah, in 2019. Someone asked me if I was interested to audition for this show called Titoudao. I actually auditioned for this other role, and then just as a bonus, the casting manager asked me to try for another role, which is the one I got, Ah Zai.

It was my biggest project 'cos it required me to stay in Ipoh for like three months. That was when I had to make a decision. At first, I asked my boss if I could go on a three-month sabbatical, but he rejected me ‘cos the workload is very heavy [and putting in the time to train someone just so they could cover for three months didn't make sense]. So after about a month, I quit my job, and my boss gave me his blessings. So I did Titoudao, and the rest is history lah.

Shawn Thia in Titoudao.

You’ve mainly done English productions so far. Ever thought about crossing over to Chinese productions? You were the second male lead in Genie In A Cup, right?

Filming is pretty much the same, but I'd say the intensity and the preparation [for Chinese productions] is much longer. Chinese shows also tend to be a bit pacier, like everything is faster.

So I struggled quite a bit. I got scolded quite a lot in [Genie In A Cup], but to me it's always a learning experience. I'm grateful that they believed in me, and I'm grateful that when the final result came out... I believed in myself as well lah. Actually when I did the show, I had zero confidence. I was acting with Xu Bin who speaks Chinese fluently, I'm acting with [Chen] Hanwei da ge, who speaks Chinese fluently, [Wang] Yuqing da ge, whose Chinese is fluent, and I'm just like... this, you know, a bit like a banana, right?

Did you get any feedback from them, or did you ask them for any advice?

For that Chinese production, I wasn't afraid to ask. I dropped all my ego, but there wasn't much to begin with, to be honest.

Sometimes you're like... very paiseh right? Like you don't know if you can ask this kind of thing or not. But when I really didn't know, I made sure to ask. And I made sure my face looked blur as hell, so they would be like, 'Oh, I’m willing to teach you’ (laughs).

I had a few lessons with Yeo Yann Yann before that too. I think I went for only four-to-five workshops before filming started, before she had to fly off.

Then, yeah, just keep on learning. I would prep everyday. If I didn't get the scene in my brain the night before, I would not sleep. That's the commitment I made to myself. For scripts, I would usually take one hour to read through, sometimes half an hour if it's very fast, and very easy. But for Chinese scripts, every thing is tripled.

Sometimes you wrap like 10, 11pm, and reach home at midnight. You start reading at 1am, maybe finish at 3am. Then you start your day again at 7am. So that's was quite hard to process.

Chinese scripts are harder to process 'cos of the language?

Correct. I read it in Chinese, I think in English, and then before I say it out in Chinese, I process it in English again. It was quite...

Honestly, I think it was a little too much back then. I was juggling moving agencies, and a lot of personal things as well, so that was a tough period.

Was it the toughest period of your acting career so far?

Yeah, I'd say so. I am very new, and I didn't have a lot of.... examples to follow. Basically I was just quite lost lah.

Shawn Thia with Tasha Low in Genie In A Cup.

After Genie In A Cup, would you consider doing another Chinese production, or would you prefer to focus on English productions?

Honestly, if you ask anyone in the industry, they'd say if you wanna get more known, you have to do Mandarin shows. For me, I don't want to say yes or no, but I just want to say that I hope I can keep doing shows that resonate with people.

If it's in English, then great. If it's in Chinese, I will learn. If Suria wants to find me to try some Malay show, I will learn Malay. Vasantham, I'll go and learn Tamil. Let's [just] say that if everything falls into place, and people still want to see me act, then, yeah, why not.

A lot of actors in the industry who are more fluent in English, like Pierre Png or Elvin Ng, eventually found their niche in Chinese productions. Would you say you'd like to follow their career trajectory?

Trajectory wise right... I... I wanna put it this way: I don't want to model my career after anyone at all. The reason being, this industry is always going to change.

Maybe say 10-20 years ago, you'd say, 'Okay, I wanna focus on being the Mediacorp Ah Ge'. You want to be like Li Nanxing, so you just keep doing Chinese dramas, and you're very good at it. But then you forget about the part where like social media is actually important as well.

So I think if you were to fixate your eyes on one thing, and focus so strongly on something that someone else has, I feel like you might lose your own trajectory somewhere. I respect all of them, like Pierre Png, Elvin Ng all of them. I super respect them. But I feel like my progress shouldn't be dictated by how far they've gone, but more like how far I can possibly go. 

So you want to forge a new path for yourself?

Yeah, if I can forge a new path, why not? If I cannot, then okay lah. Maybe I can mimic here and there, you know, like, 'Oh, this is how they do it, this is where they went, or they did this show, or they start doing variety shows’. For me I don't think so much. I just think, will it make me happy? Will people want to watch? And like, does it challenge me.

Do you think with your looks and talent, you would be a lot more famous if you do Chinese productions?

Um... (ponders) I feel like… okay. My looks, right, I'll just say this, I am happy with how I look like. There are certain things that I don't like, or there are certain things that I feel are not very nice. But I think in general, I quite like how I look lah.

Will I become more famous 'cos of my looks… To be honest, I don't really care?

I want to look into the longevity of my career 'cos for acting... If possible, I want to do it for my whole life. And I hope I can become famous when people know me for my craft. Not... for how I look. But then again, I'm happy with how I look. I just hope people see that I have more to offer than that.

Psst... Shawn recently announced his engagement with fellow Sunny Side Up star Xenia Tan. More about their relationship in another story.

Photos: Shawn Thia/Instagram, Alvin Teo/Mediacorp

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