Jeanette Aw: from 'The Little Nyonya' to her own patisserie!

Jeanette Aw, also known as Ow Xuan, is a Singaporean actress, director and writer. Currently, she is also a businesswoman and a patissier! Here, we tell all about her journey from actress, to owning and selling pastries.

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Jeanette Aw was born on 28 June 1979 in Singapore. She received a prestigious education with schooling in one of Singapore’s top schools and universities throughout her life; beginning school at Raffles Girls’ Primary, and ended her formal schooling at the National University of Singapore.

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From the Sunday Times, Jeanette Aw rarely used Mandarin at home, and was primarily using English to communicate in school and at home. The actress was so skilled at the English language that consistently did well in the subject and in English Literature. Jeanette Aw would also go on to major in and graduate in Theatre Studies.

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Despite being more comfortable and skilled with the English language, Jeanette Aw ended up becoming a Chinese TV star in Singapore by landing roles in Mediacorp’s Chinese language-only channel, Channel 8. How did that happen?

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Jeanette Aw’s first foray into the entertainment industry was through participating in talent search ‘Route to Glamour’. The competition was truly the start of Jeanette Aw’s route to glamour in Singaporean showbiz as she emerged as the winner out of 5000 contestants, and earned an exclusive contract with the now defunct SPH MediaWorks.

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Under management by SPH MediaWorks, Jeanette Aw was made to star in Mandarin dramas that premiered on Singapore’s second Chinese channel, Channel U. Her debut was in 2001’s ‘Touched’, and she went on to even star in a Taiwanese production, ‘Kiss of a Toast II’, in 2002! This helped forge her niche in acting in Mandarin and becoming a Chinese TV actress.

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Jeanette Aw landed her first breakthrough role in Channel 8’s ‘Holland V’, where she played Mo Jingjing, a character with a mental disability on the show. Jeanette Aw’s acting earned her a nomination for Best Actress in the 2003 Singapore Star Awards and catapulted her into fame thereafter.

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Jeanette Aw’s ‘Holland V’ performance was so phenomenal that she was even placed on the list of potential successors for Singapore’s ‘Ah Jie’ title! The ‘Ah Jie’ title is a hugely coveted status symbol for actresses in Singapore and represents their seniority and expertise in the acting field.

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2008 was Jeanette Aw’s all-time breakthrough year. Jeanette Aw played main characters Huang Juxiang and Yamamoto Yueniang in the first and second-generation arcs of the drama series. ‘The Little Nyonya’ is known to be Singapore’s greatest and most iconic drama production, and was even remade by China’s CCTV in 2020! The popularity of the drama cemented Jeanette Aw’s acting fame in Singapore and turned her into a household name.

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Throughout her career, Jeanette Aw has won 28 acting and performance awards.

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Some of Jeanette Aw’s most iconic acting works include ‘The Champion’, ‘The Shaolin Warriors’, ‘The Dream Makers’, ‘Breakout’, ‘Holland V’, ‘The Little Nyonya’, ‘A Child’s Hope II’, and ‘Ramen Teh’.

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In 2017, Jeanette Aw made the surprising move to leave the acting world. From The Straits Times, Jeanette Aw described her life as an actress as “hitting a plateau” and decided to leave the acting scene for “new challenges”.

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According to The Straits Times, the move surprised many as 2017 was when Jeanette Aw was at the “height of her career”, after winning the Best Actress Award at Singapore’s Star Awards for the first time in her decade-long acting career.

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In the same year, Jeanette Aw was working on and directing ‘The Last Entry’! ‘The Last Entry’ was Jeanette Aw’s first foray into film writing, producing and directing and was picked out from over 100,000 entries to enter into Tokyo's Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia in 2018!

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‘The Last Entry’ was not Jeanette Aw’s last and only foray into directing! In 2018, Jeanette Aw went on to also work on another short film, ‘Senses’. ‘Senses’ is set in Takasaki in Japan, with a crew that the now-director got to know from the set of Eric Khoo’s ‘Ramen Teh’!

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Did you know that after her work on ‘Ramen Teh’, Jeanette Aw was named the official ambassador of Takasaki in 2018? It is no wonder that she chose Takasaki as a filming destination for her short film, ‘Senses’!

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From 8 Days, Jeanette Aw moved to Bangkok to enrol in a patisserie course in Le Cordon Bleu Dusit Culinary School in June 2018. She then went on to Le Cordon Bleu in Tokyo the next year and completed her patissier training!

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In 2018 on 8 Days was Jeanette Aw’s first mention of wanting to open up a patisserie. Three years later in 2021, Jeanette Aw finally managed to do so by launching ‘Once Upon A Time’ in Singapore’s Hamilton Street.

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Although Jeanette Aw officially left Mediacorp to pursue other ventures in 2017, Jeanette Aw still takes on projects in Singaporean TV occasionally as a free agent. Earlier in 2021, Jeanette Aw hosted Channel 8’s baking competition ‘Creme De La Creme’ with Singapore’s ‘Ah Jie’ Fann Wong.

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‘Creme De La Creme’ was obviously right up Jeanette Aw’s alley, since she is a trained baker, the owner of a patisserie, and a talented TV personality.

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Jeanette Aw’s foray into directing and baking goes to prove that she is a woman of many talents. Jeanette Aw’s story proves that it is always never too late for one to decide on a career change -- it might turn out for the better!

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