Who Is She?

Xuan Ong is a screen and stage actor. 

She was trained in LASALLE College of the Arts where she got her BA(Hons) in Acting. 

Xuan has performed for regional and international festivals such as the New Prague Dance Festival, Singapore International Festival of Arts and Asia- Pacific Bureau Theatre Schools Festival and Directors Conference. 

Her notable stage credits include A Dream Under The Southern Bough – Existence (SIFA), I Have Something To Say (March On Children's Festival at the Esplanade), Fika and Fishy (Patch and Punnet), Running With Strippers (Cake Theatre), CATalysts (SRT), The Singapore Trilogy (The Secondbreakfast Company). 

She is perhaps most fondly known for her role as the spunky and ambitious lead, Mui Ee, in Teenage Textbook: The Series (August Pictures) for Mediacorp’s Channel 5, her first TV series ever. 

Her other notable screen credits include One Take the Webseries (NSFTV), which she was part of the main cast that catapulted the video & content platform, NSFTV, to widespread attention, amassing a cult-following in Singapore, especially among indie content lovers. 

She played the lead in A Waking (Hei Studios), which had its world premiere in Singapore Shorts ’19. She has also done several controversial work for the platform Viddsee, such as Yi Tian (SevenOne Films), which follows the journey of a Chinese girl’s conversion to Islam and Trade Secrets (Gina Tan), which is a fearless response to the onslaught of sexual misdemeanour in local universities.  

Effectively bilingual, Xuan also acts in chinese. She most notably had her feature film debut in 7 days (七天）, when she played Aishi- a wandering spirit gifted a second chance to finish unfulfilled tasks. She made her mandarin drama debut on Mediacorp's Channel 8 with a strong main supporting role as Lynn/ Soul 4788 in Primetime Drama Soul Detective. 

However, her most cherished productions to date has been with smaller, younger, millennials-led theatre collectives, such as the quirky, unashamedly guerrilla-style collective Patch and Punnet- she has been in every single mainstage theatre show they have ever staged to date. 

Indie films has always been where she shines best, and playing Elaine in If They Can’t Be Loved left an indelible mark on her, both in her life and in her growth and career as an actor, as she saw how sensitive writing and directing with empathy can really make all the difference in the world, how brokenness and quiet strength are not mutually exclusive and perhaps most importantly, how help and hope will always exist. She subsequently won her first Best Actress award for that role. 

Occasionally, Xuan writes and directs as well. Feel free to reach out if you want to know more!

In a world so fractured, she remains unabashedly hopeful at the heart of her art-making. Xuan believes in being a fiercely unapologetic conduit for all lives whom she is tasked to represent onstage and onscreen.