Star Search 2019 Champion Teoh Zetong Confirms He’s Quitting His Carousell Job To Act
Just last month, we posed this question to Star Search then-finalist Teoh Zetong: Would you quit your job to become an actor if you won the contest?
At the time, he couldn’t give us a straight answer, sharing that he had a lot to consider, especially since he’s one of the older contestants at 26.
Tonight (Nov 3), he was posed the same question again, this time as the champion of Star Search 2019 and this time, he had an answer.
“I came here tonight with the hopes of becoming an actor. My manager was present tonight, so he already knows that I’ve won,” the associate customer relationship management manager explained. “I’ll make the necessary arrangements and I’ll be able to join Mediacorp soon if there are no hiccups along the way.”
This has been a tough decision for him, especially since he has been juggling work with the demands of the competition, going to work for online marketplace Carousell in the day, and attending acting classes at night and during the weekends.
After being assessed by the judging panel, which included Hong Kong actors and filmmakers Simon Yam, Carina Lau and Stephen Fung, he went home tonight with a new Audi and a Mediacorp contract.
He had been tipped as one of the hot favourites by the media throughout the contest. And the attention hasn’t gone unnoticed by Zetong, who mused, “Being named the hot favourite by the media was something stressful for me. When I first saw these reports, I thought a lot about how to act like a champion. During the trainings, I felt like I couldn’t achieve the standards that I set for myself because of the pressure that I had to act like a champion. The [production team] told me not to think too much of these reports and to focus on the competition.”
Still, he didn’t expect to win and shared that he is still in a state of shock over his win.
“When the lights were flickering, the air around me felt very cold,” he admitted. “I felt the warmth at the back of my head once it light up. I thought that I’d leave the stage quietly after the winners were revealed. I couldn’t see who the other two were, and I was still in a state of shock (…) I thought that Gini (Chang Hio Cheng) would be among the top three.”
Although his mentor Christopher Lee declared him leading man material, Zetong let on that he doesn’t have big dreams for his first drama role. He said, “I’m not too concerned about whether it will be a main or supporting role. As someone with no acting experience, I’m not very particular as I think I need to get a lot of experience along the way.”
He does, however, hope to work with either Jeffrey Xu or Aileen Tan in his first drama. “Both of them have amazing acting chops. Jeffrey taught us how to work on our script, so I have a lot to learn from him (…) Aileen can summon emotions very easily which is something I hope to pick up too.”
Zetong hopes to work on hosting gigs in the future, although he quipped that he will focus on his acting for now. Meanwhile, he’s already decided how he’s celebrating his win.
He grinned, “Since I won a car, I’ll take the Top 24 out for a spin when we get the chance.”
Photos: Mediacorp photo unit
