Career Confessions: Fang Rong on leaving acting and finding a new purpose

For most of us, figuring out what we want to do with our lives can take years. For Fang Rong, her career began before she was even old enough to understand what having a career meant.

The Singaporean actress entered the media industry at just four years old, starting out in modelling and commercials before landing her first acting role at seven in the telemovie Coming Home. “And yep, I was the girl on the poster,” she jokes.

At that age, she certainly wasn't thinking about where acting might eventually take her. “It was totally for fun! As a child, I really just enjoyed going on set to play with the gorgors and jiejies.”

What began as childhood fun eventually became a career spanning more than two decades.

Fang Rong went on to appear in dramas including Dear Neighbours and The Unbreakable Bond, before landing her first lead role in the 2025 Channel 8 fantasy drama Fixing Fate.

But shortly before the drama premiered, Fang Rong announced that she was stepping away from acting.

Almost a year later, her life looks very different. She's now working full-time in social work while pursuing a Master's in Counselling part-time, marking a new chapter for someone who had spent almost her entire life in front of the camera.

Growing up in front of the camera

Despite stumbling into the industry as a child, acting was something Fang Rong genuinely grew to love.

“As a naturally more emotionally sensitive child, acting gave me an outlet to express my big emotions,” she says.

But growing up in the public eye also meant becoming conscious of how other people saw her from a very young age, something she says continued to affect her into adulthood.

“Being in the public eye also meant growing up being perceived by others, and that’s something I had to grapple with even into adulthood, the desire to seek external validation and approval, even in the smaller moments of life.”

Then there was the pressure she placed on herself.

“There was also a lot of stress and anxiety that came with needing to be ‘perfect’ and constantly being in performance mode.”

Yet Fang Rong doesn’t look back at acting as something she continued simply because it was the only career she’d ever known.

“Throughout my career as an actress, it always felt familiar and close to my heart,” she says. “It wasn’t something expected of me. I think I’d simply grown comfortable with the familiarity of an art form I grew up in and came to love.”

The nine months that made her rethink her career

The turning point came in 2024, when Fang Rong went through a nine-month stretch without a show to film.

Periods without roles aren’t necessarily unusual for actors, she points out, since roles can be difficult to clinch. But for Fang Rong, those nine months gave her something valuable: time to think about what she wanted from her life beyond acting.

She spent the period doing volunteer work and reflecting on her faith and sense of purpose.

“Acting is an art form and a mode of self-expression I’ll always hold dear, but I came to realise it was no longer serving the person I wanted to become,” she says.

When her contract cycle came to an end, she decided to pursue another interest that had been with her since her university days: counselling.

It wasn’t an entirely unexpected direction. Fang Rong has a degree in psychology from the University at Buffalo in New York, giving her new career chapter roots that stretch further back than her decision to step away from acting.

“At the end of my contract cycle, I took a leap of faith and pursued a deeper calling, studying counselling, which had been a dream of mine since my university days.”

You might expect walking away from a career you’ve spent most of your life building to come with plenty of fear. Surprisingly, Fang Rong says that wasn’t the case.

“Honestly, I wasn’t afraid,” she says. “I had some concerns about financial security and the uncertainty of not knowing the path ahead, but I felt a deep sense of peace and conviction that it was the right time to make this shift.”

Life after acting

Almost a year on, Fang Rong has turned that decision into an entirely new career.

“I’m currently doing full-time social work, and it’s been incredibly meaningful. I’ve grown a lot, both professionally and personally,” she says.

Her weeks are pretty packed too. Alongside working full-time, she’s pursuing her Master’s in Counselling part-time on Saturdays.

“It brings me great joy to learn about something I’m deeply passionate about.”

It’s a very different life from the one Fang Rong knew growing up, but one that brings together her longstanding interest in psychology with her desire to do work she finds meaningful.

Acting is still her first love

While Fang Rong may have stepped away from acting professionally, audiences will still get to hear her in the animated film The Violinist, a project she recorded in 2025.

“It brings me great joy to continue this first love of mine, acting, but through a different medium,” she says. “I loved working on The Violinist and I’m so honoured to have been part of this amazing project.”

But has returning to a creative project made her miss her former career?

Not exactly.

“I don’t really miss acting, per se, though I do look back on that chapter of my life fondly, grateful for all it taught me.”

That doesn’t mean opportunities have stopped coming her way either. Fang Rong says several producers have reached out to ask whether she would be available to act, but balancing social work and her studies means she’s had to turn them down.

“Part of me did wish I could still say yes,” she admits. “But I know I’m on a new chapter now, one I’m equally, if not more, excited to be on.”

Redefining career success

Fang Rong has already had several career chapters before turning 30: child actor, full-time actress, first-time leading lady and now social worker and counselling student.

But despite how dramatically her career has changed, her idea of success hasn’t.

“I’ve always defined success as: does it bring me joy and peace, while benefiting others?”

“And that hasn’t changed, even now.”