Saturday, February 25, 2006

Actor's Résumé



Ben Tan studied Performing Arts and Fine Arts at the Science University in Malaysia in the late 70s and did his masters in Design Research in London in the mid 80s. His thesis: A (possibly) historically accurate production design of Puccini's Turandot! Upon returning to Kuala Lumpur, Ben spent the next two decades working as a Creative Director in Advertising. He finally quit the Ad industry and got back into Theatre in 2000 and has been involved in many productions by The Actors Studio and Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre. Ben has since branched out into film, both for TV and cinema, locally and internationally. He has also dabbled in Production Design and was the 2009 recipient of the Malaysian National Arts Award for Theatre Design.

• THE BATTLES OF COXINGA (Chikamatsu)
• THE LADY AOI (Yukio Mishima)
• KANTAN (Yukio Mishima)
• PINTU TERTUTUP (Jean Paul Sartre)
• PLAY (Samuel Beckett)
• THE PROPITIOUS KIDNAPPING OF THE CULTURED DAUGHTER (Lee Joo For)
• HAMLET (Shakespeare - First ever production in Malay with translation by Latiff Mohidin)
• NARUKAMI (Tsuuchi Hanjûrô/Yasuda Abun/Nakata Mansuke (1742), Oka Onitarô (1910)
• OF MEN AND OTHER FAMILIAR STRANGERS (Joe Hasham)
• DANGEROUS LIAISONS (Christopher Hampton)
• HAMLET (Shakespeare - The Actors Studio 2001)
• UDA DAN DARA (Usman Awang)
• STORIES FOR AMAH (Mark Beau de Silva)
• A GOLDFISH TALE (Choong Chi-Ren)
• A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS (Sir Robert Bolt)
• EPITAPH OF THE WHALES (Sakate Yohji)
• LIFE SDN BHD 1 (Cast)
• LIFE SDN BHD 2 (Cast)
• LIFE SDN BHD 3 (Cast)
• TAI TAI (Low Ngai Yuen)
• THE HOMECOMING (Harold Pinter)
• SUMOLAH (Michiro Kubota, Tomoko Kubota, Christina Orow, Afdlin Shauki)
• THE RED STREET DINER (Fergus Ong)
• OKIKU (Sam Yen)
• 1957 HATI MALAYA (Shuhaimi Baba)
• JALAN BERANGAN (Virginia Kennedy)
• THE TELL TALE HEART (Edgar Allan Poe/Gavin Yap)
• CAR PARK MURDER (Khairil M Bahar)
• LINE (Beck Lim)
• AMPANG MEDIKAL (Keith Chong/Khai Bahar)
• DAS TRAUMHOTEL (Maximilian Krückl)
• THE BLUE MANSION (Ken Kwek)
• SAME, SAME BUT DIFFERENT (Ruth Toma)
• PHUA CHU KANG (Malaysia)
• THE PHILANTHROPIST (Lukas Reitner/Tom Fontana)
• DIMENSIONS (Mat Wakeham)
• LOST CHAPTERS (Shariff Kamarul, et al)
• WOMEN OF SILK RIVER (Devised - Cast)
• RAYA TAK JADI (Shukor Mohaideen)
• MURMURATION OF STARLINGS
• SAMSUNG SMART TV INTERACTIVE VIDEO
• TAKE ME TO DINNER (Gavin Yap)
• SME SEASON 2 (Douglas Lim)
• THE BRIDGE (Choong Chi-Ren)
• PROJEK: HIGH COUNCIL (Anwari Ashraf & Zulaika Zakaria et al)
• JOHN DOE (Azraei Azlan)
• RELAU (Ares Bahar)
• GADIS MASA (Viu TV/Cinemalaya)





OF MEN AND OTHER FAMILIAR STRANGERS
As Matthew (with Will Gluth). Directed by Joe Hasham 2000



LIFE SDN BHD 1, 2 & 3. (Directed by Faridah Merican) 2003, 2004, 2005



A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS.
As Cardinal Wolsey. (Directed by Joe Hasham) 2003



A GOLDFISH TALE.
As George. (Directed by Joe Hasham) 2002



STORIES FOR AMAH
As Uncle Zack. (Directed by Joe Hasham) 2001



THE HOMECOMING
As Teddy (Directed by Gavin Yap for KLPAC) 2006
http://thehomecomingdiaries.blogspot.com

THE HOMECOMING WILL BE RESTAGED AT THE ACTORS STUDIO BANGSAR IN APRIL 2008!



EPITAPH OF THE WHALES
As Satoo (Directed by Lim How Ngean) 2005



TAI TAI
As the Old Man (Directed by Low Ngai Yuen) 2005




SUMOLAH


Ben plays Tadano in Afdlin Shauki's new film SUMOlah!. With Afdlin Shauki, Inthira Charoenpura, Gurmit Singh, Awie, Radhi Khalid, Patrick Teoh, Kartina Aziz, Gavin Yap and Terry Gallyot.
SUMOlah! will be shown in Japan, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. 2006



Shooting SUMOlah
Visit: http://www.sumolah.com and http://nokotta.blogspot.com




THE RED STREET DINER
Written and directed by Fergus Ong. 2006. In cinemas soon.

With Ker Shing

With Ash Nair
http://redstreetdiner.blogspot.com



O K I K U

Ben plays Lord Aoyama Tessan, the favourite samurai of the Shogun Tokugawa who, haunted by the spirit of Okiku, becomes mad and commits seppuku at the end. Directed by Fang Chyi and Kimmy Kiew. January 2007

Ben as Aoyama Tessan



With Corinne Adrienne, Louisa Chong and Janice Yap






1957 HATI MALAYA

Ben will be making a little cameo appearance as Tan Sri TH Tan who set up the Merdeka Bureau in London in 1954 with Tunku Abdul Rahman in Shuhaimi Baba's new film entitled "1957 HATI MALAYA". To be released during Malaysia's 50th Anniversary Merdeka celebrations in August this year. 2007

Ben as Tan Sri TH Tan with Kem as Tunku

With Kee Thuan Chye as Tun Sir Tan Cheng Lock, Kamarulzaman as Tunku Abdul Rahman and Na'a Murad as Tun Razak





Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!




JALAN BERANGAN
A made-for-television movie directed by Virginia Kennedy
Aired May 2007

With Corinne Adrienne and Usamah Röhner

With Usamah and Keith Chong




TELL-TALE HEART
Directed by Gavin Yap for KLPAC
28th April - 6th May 2007




(With U-En Ng, Lee Swee Keong and Rauf Fadzilla)




CAR PARK MURDER
Aired 8th August 2007 10.30pm ASTRO RIA Dark City Series








Directed by Tony Pietra
With Yusmal Ghazali and Nell Ng




LINE 2008





Ben and Nell Ng will soon be appearing as husband and wife again in an Indie Short called LINE written and directed by Beck Lim.




AMPANG MEDIKAL

With Chelsia Ng and Wong Yok Kim

With Chelsia Ng and Jagdave Singh

Ben makes regular appearances as Sui Chen's dad, Dr. Wong in NTV7's AMPANG MEDIKAL.





DAS TRAUMHOTEL (MALAYSIA)

Ben just finished shooting Dream Hotel (Malaysia), a German/Austrian TV series in which he plays an architect.
Directed by Otto Retzer. 2008




With Patrick Teoh who plays business tycoon Mr.Wong.





THE BLUE MANSION

Ben shall be appearing in a Singaporean film directed by Glen Goei called THE BLUE MANSION. Actors in the film include Patrick Teoh, Louisa Chong, Adrian Pang, Lim Kay Siu, Neo Swee Lin, Claire Wong, Tan Kheng Hua, Deborah Png, Pam Oei, Karen Tan, Wendy Kweh, Huzir Sulaiman, Steve Yap, Emma Yong, Denise Chan and Dato Zahim Albakri. It was shot mostly at the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion in Penang and should be in cinemas by next year.

Ben as Wee Bak How. 2008









SAME, SAME BUT DIFFERENT


Ben as the Asian doctor in a new German film called 'Same, Same but Different' with Davis Kross (The Reader). Directed by Detlev Buck. 2009




PHUA CHU KANG

Ben shall be making a cameo appearance in Phua Chu Kang Malaysia Season 2.




THE PHILANTHROPIST (2009)


Ben as General Khin.




Ben appeared in The Philanthropist, Episode 2 "Myanmar"
which aired on NBC 1st July 2009.
Shot in South Africa and starring James Purefoy,
Neve Campbell, Jesse L. Martin, Lindy Booth
and Michael K Williams.
Directed by Ed Fraiman

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1429960/



DIMENSIONS (Maxis/Astro)

Ben plays Bota Liu the villain with super powers in DIMENSIONS.



http://www.dimensions.com.my/


LOST CHAPTERS (History Channel)

Ben plays Dr. Lim Boon Keng in History Channel's LOST CHAPTERS. (Yet to be released)




WOMEN OF SILK RIVER





Ben as Mr. Taka.
With Nicole Fuchs, Dawn Cheong, Helena Foo, Mien Ly and Prisca Florence Wong.





RAYA TAK JADI
Ben shall be appearing in a new comedy called Raya Tak Jadi directed by Prof. Madya A. Razak Mohaideen.
Actors include Saiful Apek, Dato Jalaluddin Hassan and Johan Raja Lawak. In cinemas 2011.





Here with Iedil Putra Alaudin and Heiry Azly.





MURMURATION OF STARLINGS 2010
(In production for the Berlin Festival 2011)
Directed by Prof. Razak Mohaideen.






SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT

Directed by Detlev Buck. Here with David Kross (The Reader)




SAMSUNG SMART TV INTERACTIVE VIDEO




DO LEAVE A COMMENT.


15 comments:

High Power Rocketry said...

Hi from NYC :)

carinasuyin said...

wahhh uncle zack oso got blog one ah? :) Hi Ben!!

w3s said...

w3s the salesman from the docu-drama, hi there, JOE!

Dude, you need 2 update ur blog! That's if you have got the time.. Btw, nice meeting & working with ya! Cheers!

Ben Tan said...

Hi w3s, lovely working with you too. You should take up acting seriously.

juliana said...

hello gorgeous! :) looking great as usual! i'll see u soon.. before sunday of course. cheers!! luv luv ..

Che Kem said...

Hi Ben,

So interesting and beautiful photo. Especially u and me.

Unknown said...

lovely photos. nice blog, ben. great working together for the first time. cannot believe our paths have not crossed before.

onwards n upwards with love n blessings

swee lin N kay siu x x x

Anonymous said...

I LIKE YOUR PHOTO. UNCLE BEN.

Anonymous said...

Can you give me your photo with the person holding a gun pls?

Anonymous said...

Hi,I am ER YONG REN.Can you send to me more picture on the funeral party pls.Some more,can you send to me your email address?Thank you.

sabahuddin senin said...

http://au.myspace.com/omarmusa

try to link

sabahuddin senin said...

very nice blog

old friend at USM au revoir bon nit.

Unknown said...

Hi Mr. Taka! Nice play! Enjoyed the show and my relatives are so impressed by your performance!

Ben Tan said...

Thanks Bokjae!

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