| Tan Kheng Hua | |||||||||||||||
| Birth Date: | 1963 1, df=yes | ||||||||||||||
| Birth Place: | Singapore | ||||||||||||||
| Nationality: | Singaporean | ||||||||||||||
| Alma Mater: | Indiana University | ||||||||||||||
| Occupation: | Actress | ||||||||||||||
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| Children: | 1 | ||||||||||||||
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Tan Kheng Hua (born 17 January 1963) is a Singaporean actress. She is best known for her supporting roles in the 2018 Hollywood film Crazy Rich Asians and in American television network the CW's martial arts television series Kung Fu (2021-2023).
Tan acquired an interest in acting when she took a theatre elective while attending Indiana University. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science (magna cum laude) from Indiana University School of Public & Environmental Affairs. After returning to Singapore, she took up a job in public affairs, and pursued acting in her spare time.
The first stage play Tan performed in was John Bowen's The Waiting Room, which was directed by her cousin Ivan Heng. It took almost a decade before Tan became a full-time actress. In the theatre, Tan is in the original casts of landmark plays such as Beauty World, Lao Jiu, Descendants of the Admiral Eunuch, Animal Farm, Cooling Off Day and Falling, for which she won her second Life! Theatre Best Actress Award.
In Singaporean television, Tan is best known for her role as Margaret in Singapore's longest running and most successful sitcom, Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd, for which she won an Asian Television Award for Best Actress (Comedy). Her first foray into Mandarin-language television, Beautiful Connection, earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Star Awards.
On the international scene, Tan has appeared in Serangoon Road, Marco Polo and Crazy Rich Asians.
In 2018, Tan signed with Conway van Gelder Grant in Britain and GVA Talent Agency and Zero Gravity Management in Los Angeles, United States.[1] Tan was still signed with Fly Entertainment for the Asian region.
In 2020, Tan was cast as a series regular in Kung Fu, The CW's modern reboot of Kung Fu.[2]
Tan also creates and produces for stage and television in Singapore including the critically acclaimed cabaret act, The Dim Sum Dollies;[3] the dramas 9 Lives and Do Not Disturb, the latter being the first local TV series to receive the maximum 5-star rating from Straits Times Life!, the Mandarin serial, Mr & Mrs Kok and lifestyle infotainment on The Asian Food Channel. Outside of Singapore Tan produced No.7, an original theatre piece commissioned by the Georgetown Festival 2011 in Penang. No.7 was sold out with a waiting list. In 2014, she brought 64 Singaporean and Malaysian artists together in The SIN-PEN Colony to Penang's Georgetown Festival celebrating the cities’ shared heritage of food, visual art, music, theatre and design. The theatre segment within The SIN-PEN Colony, 2 Houses, sold-out within four days. She conceptualized and produced The Twenty-Something Theatre Festival 2016 and Tropicana The Musical (based on the real-life Tropicana entertainment complex) which opened to positive reviews in April 2017.
For her contributions to the arts, Tan was one of fifty local stage personalities in an exhibition celebrating 50 years of Singapore theatre and part of twenty contemporary artists chosen to represent Singapore in Singapore: Inside Out, a showcase presented by the Singapore Tourism Board in Beijing, London and New York City to celebrate Singapore's fiftieth anniversary.
Tan married Singaporean theatre and television actor Lim Yu-Beng in 1992. They divorced in 2017 after 25 years of marriage.[4] They have a daughter, actress Lim Shi-an.[5]
Tan has been in a relationship with Kendell Dickinson since January 2022.[6]
| Year | Title | Role | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Army Daze | Cavewoman | ||
| 1999 | That One No Enough | |||
| 2005 | Cages | Ali Tan | ||
| 2009 | The Blue Mansion | Veronica Wee | ||
| 2012 | Sex.Violence.FamilyValues | |||
| 2016 | The Faith of Anna Waters | Charlotte Sharma | ||
| 2018 | Crazy Rich Asians | Kerry Chu | [7] | |
| 2019 | The Garden of Evening Mists | Emily | ||
| TBA | The Tiger's Apprentice |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Triple Nine | Chong Swee Chin | |||
| 1995 | Dick Lee with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra | Herself, as host | variety show | ||
| 1997–2007 | Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd | Margaret Phua | 8 seasons | [8] | |
| 1999 | AlterAsians – Iris’ Rice Bowl | Iris | Miniseries | ||
| 2001 | A War Diary | Lim Swee Neo | |||
| 2002 | Beautiful Connection | Mo Lan Ying | |||
| 2003 | The New Home | ||||
| 2008–2009 | Sayang Sayang | Nellie Tan | 2 seasons | ||
| 2013 | Serangoon Road | Artik | Episode: "Reach Out" | ||
| 2014 | Marco Polo | Xie Daoqing | 8 episodes | ||
| 2015 | The Pupil Season 2 | Shirley Woo | |||
| 2017 | BRA | Gloria Yap | 2 episodes | ||
| 2019 | Chimerica | ||||
| 2020 | Grey's Anatomy | Vera Roberts | Episode: "Sing It Again" | ||
| Medical Police | Bao Tsai | Episode: "Everybody Panic!" | |||
| Magnum P.I. | Lynn Yang | Episode: "The Night Has Eyes" | |||
| 2021–2023 | Kung Fu | Mei-Li Chen | 39 episodes |