Besides being known as a quirky, quick-witted and very funny host, this young actress has a wide range of screen and stage roles under her belt. Her most recent hosting credits include the popular Happy Rules, where her many personas and accents won over the hearts of Singapore heartlanders ( the filipina nurse, the peranakan ah-ma, the Japanese office-girl, the nerdy foodie and the hip-hop dancer etc), the travel game show Bon Voyage, where Michelle takes two contestants to a different country each time and they compete against time to complete a number of tasks, and the successful Open Sesame, where Michelle brings the audience into three beautiful HDB homes every episode. Michelle's natural and lively hosting style and witty quips play a big part in creating the successful ratings of each variety program she hosts.
Contrary to popular belief, largely due to her convincing portrayal of an English-educated girl in the Mandarin sitcom, School Days, Michelle actually took Chinese as a first language when she was a SAP student in Dunman High School. After which, she went to Victoria Junior College to pursue her interests in Drama by taking it as one of her A-level subjects. Her drama teacher, renowned theatre director Rey Buono, thought she was good enough to make it as a performer and so recommended her to Bates College, US where she studied Theatre.
She came back to Singapore a year later and enrolled in the National University of Singapore to further her intellectual interests in Theatre Studies. For the next two years, Michelle concentrated on being a thespian by acting in critically-acclaimed theatre productions. Michelle also managed to snag the coveted role of Lana in The Theory of Everything where she got to perform in Los Angeles for a full month's run and earned for herself a good review in the LA Times. She remains one of few Singapore actors who are part of the prestigious Actor's Equity in the US.
Michelle first became familiar to young audiences in the region when she was picked amongst thousands who auditioned to be Singapore's representative in MTV Asia's It's My Life where her life was chronicled and broadcast weekly all over Asia for a year.
Michelle's foray into film was marked by her too-convincing portrayal of Porsche in the local movie Eating Air in which The Straits Times described her as "a high-class comic act all by herself". Audiences might still remember her for her hilarious Malaysian accent in the movie.
Michelle has been voted by FHM readers as one of the world's top 30 sexiest women consecutively in 2002/2003. Michelle took her first official step into babedom when she played a bikini princess with aplomb in Singapore's first beach drama Paradise and was voted by the Straits Times readers as their favourite babe.
Not contented with just being in front of the camera, Michelle also nabbed a merit award in the 24 hr playwriting competition organised by Theatreworks in 2000. The effectively bilingual actress sees writing as a form of self-expression, thinks it highly therapeutic and sporadically contributes articles, including food reviews, to local newspapers.
Possessing the rare combination of beauty, talent, intellect and youthful energy, Michelle looks set to go far. The humble yet sharp-witted actress however attributes her popularity to her theatre training and blessings from Guan Yin Ma, and says she looks forward to adding to her repertoire a myriad of challenging roles in MediaCorp.
