Six cool, young and talented stars on the Rise in 2024

Lim Shi-An

Credit: thirah Annissa

1/15

For someone born to two of Singapore’s most respected actors, Tan Kheng Hua and Lim Yu-Beng, and who has clinched some of the meatiest roles on television in the short year and a half that she has been acting (the lead in the 2023 thriller Alienated and a principle player in the family drama Come Closer), Lim Shi-An is very understated.

Credit: Athirah Annissa

2/15

Watch the video she has pinned to the top of her TikTok account (@shiiiannn0), in which she introspects her love-hate relationship with social media as she navigates a career in entertainment. She’s equally unaffected in her other posts, sharing self-narrated vignettes of her daily life that reveal a love for travel, a budding interest in fashion and beauty, and her enviably close bond with her mum. In each one, she’s noticeably makeup-free, revealing the dozens of freckles scattered across her face.

Credit: Athirah Annissa

3/15

In this image-obsessed era, the 26-year-old is a breath of the freshest air who – not unlike her parents – prefers to let her work speak for itself. Stay tuned as she next takes to the big screen, playing the lead in her first feature film – an experimental work set in a version of Singapore that’s crawling with the undead.

Ally Teo

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4/15

Ally Teo is a natural in front of the camera. The 19-year-old started acting a decade ago before moving on to dancing and singing. She has even written and self-released an EDM-inspired single Take Me Away (you can find it on Spotify), and we can expect more – this time of an R&B flavour – to come this year, she says.

Credit: Athirah Annissa

5/15

This self-starter, go-getter attitude has taken her furthest in the modelling realm. Fresh off a contract with a local modelling agency, she has the ability to take on just about any character on set – all while maintaining her edge as a runway-worthy clothes horse with her cherubic, doll-like features and elegant gait. Of course, she can also turn to content creation – her bubbly GRWM and day-in-the-life videos have clocked more than 11 million likes on her TikTok account (@allyteozc) – or pharmaceutical science, which she’s currently studying. Impressed?

Qilah Rose

Credit: Athirah Annissa

6/15

Nuraqilah Bte Zainal Abidin – better known by her stage name Qilah Rose – is a tour de force on TikTok. Head to the account @qilahrose55 for her hot takes on random topics (she has declared 2024 the year of the short kings); humorous yet empowering videos on body positivity; and GRWM and makeup tutorials that confirm the girl’s got style and finesse in spades

Credit: Athirah Annissa

7/15

The 25-year-old is in fact a freelance actress who trained under Singapore Repertory Theatre’s The Young Company. Her next project is a short drama series titled The Will, in which she plays a spoiled brat duking it out with her siblings over their inheritance and that debuts on Viddsee’s TikTok page (@viddsee) this month. Already, brands such as Lancome and YSL Beauty have taken notice and collaborated with her. We think more should too.

Serena Jane McNeill

Credit: Athirah Annissa

8/15

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of the elfin Scottish-Malay model Serena Jane McNeill. We were among the first – if not the first – here to cast her in a fashion editorial back in 2019, when she was still a slightly baby-faced 19-year-old fledgling who had just signed to modelling agency Misc Management (then known as Blu).

Credit: Athirah Annissa

9/15

Since then, she has grown steadily in grace, versatility and confidence, becoming a regular on our pages as well as fronting no less than four of our covers – the latest being our recent January/February edition.

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10/15

Last year, the fashion and watch enthusiast secured her first international placement in Seoul, during which she scored campaigns with popular local labels such as Marge Sherwood and NotKnowing – as well as one of the biggest brands to come out of the nation (details remain under wraps as it’s yet to be released). If you ask us, McNeill’s about to enter her supermodel era.

Julie San Lieu

Credit: Athirah Annissa

11/15

The easiest way to describe Julie San Lieu is that she’s an It girl. Born in Paris and uprooted to Singapore in 2012, the 18-year-old first came onto our radar as a curly-mopped teen model three years ago. Even at that age, the Chinese-Cambodian exuded a vivacious personality that makes her prime for on-screen success.

Credit: Athirah Annissa

12/15

Fast forward to today and she toggles freelance modelling with content creation and the occasional music recording in her bedroom (the girl boasts smoky vocals reminiscent of Lana Del Rey). As casual as all these endeavours have been, she has still managed to rake in a cool 100K-plus followers and 4.4 million likes on her TikTok account @iwishiwasawaternymph.

Credit: Athirah Annissa

13/15

Factor in how she’s a hardcore fashion girlie who loves mixing up styles (sexy 1990s minimalist chic, JPG-esque irreverence, hip-hop, you name it) and it’s little wonder she’s also on the guest list of all the hottest events in town. Now that she’s on a break from school, we can only wonder: What next?

Regina Song

Credit: Athirah Annissa

14/15

The 19-year-old “girlie pop” singer Regina Song has the kind of girl-next-door guilelessness that catapulted Britney Spears and Taylor Swift to fame. She first came onto the scene in 2021, but school (she majored in music at the School of the Arts) meant she had to put her career on hold. It was worth the wait: Last March, she returned with her smooth, feel-good single High School Boy, which has since garnered more than a million plays on Spotify (she boasts over 120K monthly listeners on the platform too). Bigger things are in the works.

Credit: Athirah Annissa

15/15

This month, she opened for Filipino-Australian indie pop star Grentperez’s when she was here, and her debut album, which covers her experiences as a young woman and is aptly titled Fangirl, will drop later in 2024.

COORDINATION KENG YANG SHUEN PHOTOGRAPHY ATHIRAH ANNISSA STYLING DAMIAN HUANG STYLING ASSISTANT DANESSA TONG HAIR TAN ENG CHONG/KIZUKI+LIM MAKEUP KEITH BRYANT LEE, USING CHANEL BEAUTY

This article first appeared in the March 2024 Celebrity Edition of FEMALE