Gurmit Singh

Gurmit Singh Virk Chainchal Singh (born 24 March 1965; ; ) is a Singaporean actor, comedian, presenter, and television personality. He was prominently a full-time Mediacorp artiste from 1994 to 2014. A former artiste of Mediacorp, he is best known for his role as the titular character Phua Chu Kang in Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd, Phua Chu Kang Sdn Bhd and Phua Chu Kang The Movie, for which he won the Asian Television Awards prize for Best Performance by an Actor (Comedy) five times, from 1998 to 2001 and in 2003 for the former. From 2004 to 2005, he won the Highly Commended prize. Life Born to a Sikh Indian father, Chainchal Singh, and an East Asian (Chinese–Japanese) mother, Gurmit was brought up as a Sikh, but converted to Christianity in 1985. Gurmit Singh studied in Outram Secondary School during his secondary school years. Gurmit is married to Melissa, a Cantonese Chinese. They have three children, Gabrielle (born 1997), Elliot (born 2002) and Mikaela (born 2013). Gurmit is an alumnus of National Police Cadet Corps, Singapore, and held the rank of Cadet Inspector. Career Making his debut in the variety show Live on 5 in 1994, he then became the host and lead actor of sitcom Gurmit's World, also debuted in 1994. The second season of Gurmit's World, continued in 1995, in which Gurmit portrayed his 'relatives' in a series of skits (unlike the first season where he played a wide assortment of mostly non-recurring characters), featured the first appearance of a character named Phua Chu Kang. The Singlish-based spin-off sitcom Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd in 1997 made Gurmit a popular icon, not only in Singapore, but also in neighbouring countries (especially Malaysia). This factor leads to having a spin-off sitcom sequel based in Malaysia, Phua Chu Kang Sdn Bhd (2009-2010).