Get to know the tenacious actor Shaun Chen

One day you're just another spectator watching TV. The next, you could become the star of a television drama. That was what happened to Shaun Chen. The actor was talent-scouted in 2002 in Malaysia while working as a part-time model and eyewear distributor.

Shaun Chen later signed a year's contract with Mediacorp after an audition. He was then cast as a host for the variety show City Beat (2002-03) opposite Sharon Au, Jeff Wang and Fiona Xie. In 2003, he had his first acting role in True Heroes. 

Remember the time when Channel U was under MediaWorks TV owned by the Singapore Press Holdings (SPH)? The company went operational in the early 2000s and Shaun Chen was one the few actors who jumped ship.

However, good times didn't last for Shaun Chen. In less than two years, MediaWorks merged with Mediacorp. He wasn't picked to rejoin the company and lost his rice bowl overnight.

"(MediaWorks) was very sincere and had a lot of confidence in me. They offered me a huge salary raise to join their team. I was naive and it was quite straightforward to me. I wanted to support my family and I didn't handle the situation as well as I should. I should have handled it better so that people wouldn't be angry at me for leaving."

Shaun Chen still needed to make ends meet. "Eventually I ran out of funds and I resorted to using credit cards. I spent as little on food as possible... Since I didn't have an income, I went back to selling spectacles. I went to the shops with two bags of samples to sell spectacles."

Not willing to give up and return back to Malaysia just yet, Shaun Chen's spate of bad fortune ended eventually after he was able to return to Mediacorp. "I met Kenneth Liang, the boss from the production company Dream Forest. He brought me back to Mediacorp to discuss a contract. It took a few rounds of discussion and I returned to Mediacorp."

Shaun Chen began getting cast again and went on to work on shows such as C.I.D. (2006), Your Hands In Mine (2014),  The Journey: Tumultuous Time (2014) and My One and Only (2021). He also picked up a couple of acting awards on the way - Star Awards' Rocket Award and Best Actor in 2015 for The Journey: Tumultuous Time. He also has taken home six Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes trophies.

Remember when we said earlier that Shaun Chen used to sell spectacles for a living? That wasn't the only job he had done. He began working at the age of 18 and later been an electrician, car spray painter and credit card and spectacle salesman after finishing a diploma in electronic and electrical engineering.

In his teenage days, Shaun Chen picked up badminton while studying in Seremban (he is from Negri Sembilan). He got so good at it that he actually represented the state in competitions. He also tried for the national team but sadly didn't make it. "I was passionate about it, but I didn't have the natural talent."

Shaun Chen was first married to former actress-host Michelle Chia. They met on the set of MediaWorks' Power of Love in 2004 and registered their marriage in 2008. A year later, they had a televised wedding. In 2011, Shaun Chen and Michelle Chia announced that they were splitting and finalised their divorce the following year, with Chia citing personality and lifestyle differences as the reasons.

In 2015, Shaun Chen made news when he announced his marriage and that the couple was expecting a child. His wife was revealed to be Malaysian beautician Celine Chin, whom he had met after slipping into her DMs. The couple has since had two children: Nellie and Neia.

On an episode of Christopher Lee's Dishing with Chris Lee, guest Shaun Chen revealed that his family and passion for acting were his main motivating forces. For starters, he had started giving his parents money after he began earning money. When he won the acting awards in 2015, he returned home for a celebration with his family. He also finally managed to return home to visit his parents after 22 months of separation due to the Covid-19 restrictions in December 2021.

Shaun Chen also shared in 2019 that he finally managed to quit smoking for good for his family. He had initially picked up the habit when he was 21 and later failed to quit twice. It was only after a beloved senior and long-term smoker Uncle Tong had passed from lung cancer that made him think of his family and reconsider smoking.

Well, at least to some extent. On an episode of The Zoe and Liang Show, Shaun Chen was asked whether parents should allow their kids to follow their dreams especially if they are unrealistic.

"There should be some control lah. But if she has her own way of thinking and has her own dreams, we should let her [pursue them]. But if her dream is very impractical, for example, she [says that] she likes to clear rubbish and wants to be a cleaner in the future, then she can, but I would [ask] that she becomes the ‘king’ of cleaners. Like opening a cleaning company and maybe she will think ‘Eh I can also become a boss if I want to be a cleaner, then it’s different."

In another interview, Shaun Chen said that he would be okay if his daughters decided to date a much older guy. "Aiyah, older guys are better, he says. It’s okay even if they are 20 years older. As long as the guy is healthy, mature and has a stable life, why not? As long as the guy treats them well, it’s okay!"

In 2021, Shaun Chen opened up about a paranormal experience when he was in Penang filming The Journey: Tumultuous Times. "The hotel we were staying at wasn’t exactly new and I was so tired that I fell asleep [after filming]. And in the middle of the night, I felt that there was someone touching me, but I couldn’t move at all. It felt like there was someone pushing me down. Mustering up all my strength, I turned over and started scolding the ‘ghost' immediately. I knew that there must’ve been something dirty disturbing me, so I started scolding it. And it worked, the ghost disappeared."

In August 2023, it came to light that Shaun Chen co-owns a bar. To be specific, he owns a minor share of The Gold Club in The Heeren, which was set up with four other friends. The concept of the entertainment venue is rather unique too as it holds up to 40 pax to gather in a quieter, cosier environment where they can still chat. The bar is also members-only, with differentiated price tiers.

Interestingly, Shaun Chen doesn't drink alcohol anymore. He, however, still wants a place to hang out with his friends. "Actually, it’s not that weird [that I don't drink]. For example, if you're a chef, you won't [always] eat the food that you cook, right? And for us actors, sometimes, we won't watch the shows that we act in as well."

Shaun Chen had once shared his worst drinking experience."When I was in my 20s, I went with a group of friends to a nightclub in Malaysia. My friend kept making me drink even though I couldn’t hold my liquor well. He said that I wasn’t ‘man’ enough and that got me fired up, so I downed 10 glasses of whiskey shots in one hour to prove my masculinity. I got so giddy and couldn’t walk properly and my friends had to send me home. I spent the night puking and I woke up with my face next to the toilet bowl. It was the craziest night I’ve had. Since that incident, I only have a maximum of two drinks if I go out!"

Covid-19 was a challenging time for us all. And Shaun Chen, unfortunately, lost out on opportunities that would have raked him "a pretty large amount". "There were three dramas and a movie that I was supposed to shoot in Malaysia this year, but they either scaled down on production or cast someone else in my roles because of Covid-19." One of the dramas was a five-episode cameo where he would have gotten to work with an international team.

However, there was a silver lining - Shaun Chen was able to spend more time with his wife and daughters. "I’ve been ridiculously busy for the past couple of years. It’s good to be able to spend time with the family, but at the same time, it came with a price."