Anna Belle Francis

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Anna Belle Francis (born 1978) is a Singaporean entertainer and singer of Eurasian ethnicity. First emerging into the entertainment scene as a young child, Francis has a prolific portfolio, having recorded many songs and produced and starred in many films and plays.

Contents

Early life

A Eurasian, [1] Francis was born 1978 [2] in Singapore, to "a family with a strong and popular musical background". Her father was a drummer. [3] Her Aunty, Irene Francis was a well known singer in the 70's and 80's including her Uncle, Stephen Francis, a pianist till today. She grew up watching her family perform on TV and stage.

Career

As a young child, [3] Francis started out her entertainment career as a theatrical actor with Act 3, Singapore’s first Theatre for Children. She then started embarked onto the Screens when she hosted her debut TV show, Vidz, where she presented music videos and interviewed international artistes. She then started acting in TV series and sitcoms such as Triple Nine, Growing Up, Three Rooms and many others. She also was in a feature film, Forever Fever by Glen Goei.

Among other projects, she starred as a girl whose husband has already been chosen for her in the Peranakan stage play Bedrooms from late-November to mid-December 2009 and other stage performances including "Love Pukes".

For a while she took a hiatus in her acting career, assumingly to focus more on her first two children. However, in 2004, Francis founded a performing arts institution Trinaqi. Francis then co-established Soul Theory Studios, a Hip Hop academy and movement with her spouse Sheikh Haikel.

She has also produced a handful of projects and events with National Arts Council and People's association including Dick Lee's Euranasia Concert.

As a host, Francis has hosted many high-profile events, such as the 2007 National Day Parade and the 2010 Youth Olympic Games. Together with her husband, she hosted Knockout, Knockout All-Stars, and Knockout Carnival, all of which were broadcast on Okto.

Francis is co-director of School of Music Singapore, which was founded in 2013, alongside her husband. As a professional singer, Francis has recorded numerous tracks, plenty of which are duets with her husband.

Personal life

Francis married Singaporean rapper, radio personality and actor Sheikh Haikel [4] in around 2002. [3] They have three children – one daughter Triqka (born 2004) and one son Abbra (born 2006) and just recently, a new addition to their family, Juz (born 2014). [5]

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References

  1. "The Performing Arts Chapter". The Eurasian Association, Singapore. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
  2. Rasul, Juliana June (October 16, 2009). "So cool that kids see mum as cool". AsiaOne . Archived from the original on August 17, 2011. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 "About The Directors". School of Music Singapore. Archived from the original on October 19, 2013. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
  4. "10 celebrity stories on the road". AsiaOne Relax. Archived from the original on April 24, 2012. Retrieved October 11, 2012.
  5. "Sheikh Haikel: Hip Hop Artiste, Dad for Life". Dads For Life. Archived from the original on August 14, 2011. Retrieved October 11, 2012.