Actor and model, Lee Wok shares his story, experiences,  journey in becoming an actor in Singapore together with his future plans

See how Lee changed his career from a long time business manager to actor.

01. Describe your journey in a nutshell:

I’ve always had acting on the back burner most of my life.  I took some minor acting classes in middle school, high school, and university back in the States.  But international business management took priority in my life as I always wanted to be a successful international businessman in Asia (inspired by Jackie Chan’s movie, Gorgeous).  Every time I’ve performed in class or in drama club, I’ve received quite high praise from my peers and lecturers.  My greatest feedback was my coursework in university ‘Acting for Non-Majors’ where for our final performance, the lecturer told me my acting abilities surpasses that of his Master in Arts students- with that I was involved in several final year student films as their lead actor but after all of that, I never took it any further as I wanted to focus more on my corporate endaevors- acting was always on the back burner.

 
 
After successfully building a team from scratch as a business development manager for ten years in Asia for an IT cyber-security related firm, I decided to take my leave from the industry and I decided I wanted to do something more enjoyable, and that turned out to really be acting on film.  Beginning of 2019 was the start of my professional acting/modeling career based in Singapore and I’ve been absolutely grateful for the number of projects I’ve been part of over the past several months from features on local TV drama to supporting roles in short film and principal roles in commercials.  I’ve started to invest most of my earnings back into myself to constantly improve my acting skills from improv to method acting.  I just signed on with a local talent agent to better put my skills and brand on track as well as work with other peers in the industry to better my knowledge and exposure here in Singapore.
 

02. Besides being an Actor, what else takes up your time professionally?

When I’m not in class or preparing for an audition, I’m an active trader in foreign markets. In business, analytics has always been my strength and certainly, trading has helped pay for the bills.
 
 

03. What do you love most about being an Actor?

I enjoy film acting as seeing the process of the setup, the pre and post-production, the angle of the camera, the lighting, the cinematography, and seeing it all come together.  Interpreting the character, adapting to the vision of the director, working with different people on set- it’s being part of the creative process to produce a masterpiece where you try to immerse the audience as much as possible into the story is absolutely satisfying.  I’ve always been a person who loved to make the audience (customers as well) go wow!
 

 

04. What do you tear your hair out about?

 The audition and selection process can be annoying.  Perhaps it’s because I’m new to the industry but when you think you match a selection perfectly (e.g. Asian male, beard, age 30-35, martial arts background, can speak American English, can appear as a businessman, based in Singapore) and you are told you didn’t make it to the selection process to audition without any feedback, you really want to know what specifically it in that criteria you did not achieve.  But I’ve been on the hiring process so I know that it’s sometimes hard finding that perfect match so I try to forget it and move on.
 
 
05. What’s next?
 
Continue to hone my performance skills, network with the industry, build a brand and image, stay motivated and creative and then, eventually move out to LA and take on the big league!
 
 
 
Talent: