Irene Ang

Irene Ang was born into a family of four, consisting of her parents, an elder brother and herself. When she was growing up, she was taken care mostly by her grandmother, and other relatives as well, as her mother was a drug addict and her father a gambler.^[3][4]

Her mother was a former nightclub singer, and started being a drug addict due to marital issues. Once her mother wanted to dump Ang at a girls' home, who's her father's favoured child, to spite her father over his philandering ways.^[5] After her mother was in and out of the prison system over her drug use for a decade, Ang and her brother managed to convince her mother stay clean with an ultimatum that if she was again, they would leave her in 1983. After released from the prison in 1984, her mother has kept herself clean since.^[4]

Irene Ang first studied in CHIJ Kellock Primary School,^[4] and then Outram Secondary School, choosing it only because it had a swimming pool. In secondary school, she was on the water polo team and was a trained lifeguard by then.^[6] She then went onto Outram Institute to study for Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level education certificate. However, she did not take the exams as she could not afford the examination fees.^[7] She subsequently took the exams thrice, but failed.^[3]

In 1989, after attending Outram Institute, she and her friends responded to an ad recruiting stunt swimmers for a television series.^[8][9] She eventually became the stunt swimmer for Chen Liping in Splash to Victory. She later was a stunt double for Zoe Tay in the 1990 tv series, Navy.^[9]

Irene Ang was a sales executive with American Express when she started training in fencing.^[10] She trained for eight months before presenting Singapore the 1991 SEA Games and won a silver medal.^[8] After winning the SEA Games medal, she was shortlisted for representation at the following year's 1992 Summer Olympics. However she declined the offer as she could not afford the expenses to travel to Spain. She would eventually be head-hunted and joined the insurance industry for seven years.^[3][11]

She would also work as a warm-up comedian to warm up the studio audience on the set of Under One Roof.^[12] It was here she was spotted by Phua Chua Kang Pte Ltd's producers and was asked to audition for roles in the upcoming television series.^[12]

In 1997, Irene Ang would be casted in Phua Chua Kang Pte Ltd as Rosie Phua, as the wife of lead character Phua Chu Kang, a general contractor. As the 10-year long television series eventually became a regional hit, she would reprise her character in a Malaysian spin-off, and a movie, all of which revolving around Phua Chu Kang.

In 2022, Ang launched the web application TADAA! Casting which serves as a local and regional casting platform for entertainers.^[13]

In 2023, Ang was named as one of the recipients of the Public Service Medal (PBM), for her work as a committee member of the SkillsFuture programme with the South West Community Development Council.^[14]

Drawing on her experiences in her childhood, she would lend her influence and voice behind projects such as the Fairy Godparent programme, an initiative by the The Yellow Ribbon Fund and Industrial and Services Co-Operative Society (ISCOS) that would help children of ex-offenders acquire a good education and positive life skills.^[4]

In 1984, her parents would also file for a divorce.^[4] In 1996 her grandmother died, leaving behind a wish that Ang would take care of her parents. Irene Ang had since reconciled with her parents after finding faith through her religion, Christianity. Both her parents would then work for Irene in their later years, her mother a chef in one of Ang's restaurant; her father a driver in Fly Entertainment.^[15]

Ang has appeared in and/or produced the following programmes and films:^[16][17][18]

• Ah Kong’s Birthday Party (1998)
• PIE (1999)
• 1+1=3 (2003)
• Mardi Gras (2003)
• Phua Chu Kang - The Musical (2005)
• Beauty World (2008)
• Stand Up for Singapore (2008)

• Irene Ang at IMDb