Gurmit Singh

Gurmit Singh
Gurmit Singh
	Gurmit in 2024
Born	Gurmit Ottawan Singh Virk; 24 March 1965 (age 60); Singapore
Education	Outram Secondary School
Occupation(s)	Actor, Comedian, Host
Years active	1994–present
Notable work	Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd ; Phua Chu Kang Sdn Bhd ; Phua Chu Kang The Movie
Spouse	Melissa Wong (m. 1995)
Children	3

Last updated August 14, 2025

Gurmit Singh^[a] (born 24 March 1965) is a Singaporean actor, comedian and host. He was prominently a full-time Mediacorp artiste from 1994 to 2014. He is best known for his role as the titular protagonist named Phua Chu Kang in Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd , Phua Chu Kang Sdn Bhd and Phua Chu Kang The Movie , for which he won the Asian Television Awards prize for Best Performance by an Actor (Comedy) five times, from 1998 to 2001 and in 2003 for the former.^[2] From 2004 to 2005, he won the Highly Commended prize.^[3]

Life

Born in Singapore to a Sikh Indian father, Chainchal Singh Virk and a mother of mixed Chinese and Japanese descent,^[4] Gurmit was brought up as a Sikh, but converted to Christianity in 1985.^[5]^[6] Gurmit studied in Outram Secondary School during his years in secondary school.^[7]

Gurmit married Melissa Wong in 1995, whom is a Cantonese Chinese. They have three children, Gabrielle (born 1997), Elliot (born 2002) and Mikaela (born 2013).^[8] Gurmit is an alumnus of National Police Cadet Corps and held the rank of Cadet Inspector.^[9]

Gurmit is a native English speaker owing to his multiracial heritage and is also fluent in Malay as he learnt it as his Mother Tongue Language at school.^[10]

Career

Making his debut in the variety show named Live On 5 in 1994, he then became the host and lead actor in the sketch comedy sitcom based on him known as Gurmit's World, which was also debuted in 1994 for the 1st season after Live On 5 Season 1 ended. The 2nd season of Gurmit's World, which continued in 1995, Gurmit portrayed his 'relatives' in a series of skits (unlike the first season where he played a wide assortment of mostly non-recurring characters), featured the first appearance of a character and general contractor named Phua Chu Kang, where he is one of the 6 characters that Gurmit was portraying in the 2nd season of Gurmit's World. The Singlish-based spin-off sitcom based on Phua Chu Kang known as Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd in 1997 made Gurmit a popular icon, not only in Singapore, but also in neighbouring countries (especially Malaysia and the Riau Islands of Indonesia). This factor leads to having another spin-off sitcom sequel based in Malaysia known as Phua Chu Kang Sdn Bhd (2009-2010).

In 2013, Gurmit was nominated for the Best Actor prize at the 1st Golden Wau Awards, aimed at promoting Chinese-language Malaysian films, for his role in Phua Chu Kang The Movie (2010).^[11]

In October 2014, the Madame Tussauds Singapore museum unveiled a wax figure of Phua Chu Kang.^[12]

In November 2014, Gurmit announced that he would leave the entertainment industry at the end of his full-time television career at Mediacorp - after exactly 20 years. Gurmit shared that he planned to spend more time with his family and would take on engagements on a more selective basis.^[13]

In July 2017, Gurmit was announced by the Dover Park Hospice as the Hospice Ambassador.

In August 2020, Phua Chu Kang was announced and signed as Shopee's first Singaporean brand ambassador.^[14]

Filmography

Film

Year	Name of Film	Role	Notes	Ref
2001	One Leg Kicking	Tai Po		^[15]
2007	Just Follow Law	Lim Teng Zui
2007	Sumolah	Akira
2010	Phua Chu Kang The Movie	Phua Chu Kang / Phua Ah Pa (Phua Chu Kang's Father) / Phua Ah Kong (Phua Chu Kang's Grandfather from Phua Ah Pa's Side)	Phua Ah Pa only appeared in flashbacks when he was younger during the olden century and dynasty period
2011	It's a Great, Great World	Security Guard
2012	The Million Dollar Job	Alvin
2013	Taxi! Taxi!	Professor Chua See Kiat
	Everybody's Business	John Lu
	The Million Dollar Job 2: Raffles' Gold	Alvin
2016	Young & Fabulous	Mr Boo
2024	The Chosen One	Bai Yun

Television

Year	Name of Show	Role	Notes	Ref
1996	Can I Help You?	Sam Pereira/Phua Chu Kang	Also portrayed Phua Chu Kang in only 1 episode known as Use Your Blain: The Return of Phua Chu Kang episode, reprising his role from Gurmit's World Season 2
1997	Shiver	Father
1997–2007	Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd	Phua Chu Kang	Also portrayed Phua Ah Pa (Phua Chu Kang's Father) in certain episodes
2003	My Sister Harmie	Rani Kaur's brother
	Brothers 4	Tony Chung
	Baby Boom	Adam
2005–2008	Lifeline	CPT Daniel De Souza
2007	80's Rewind	Larry Goh
2007	The Noose	Multiple characters	Prominently as Roy Terse and Windy Miao
2008–2009	Calefare	Andy Lau Hong
2008–2009	Cosmo & George	Cosmo
2009–2010	Phua Chu Kang Sdn Bhd	Phua Chu Kang
2014	Say It!	Himself	Season 2
2018	Fam!	Gordon Toh
2019	Lion Mums 3	Edmond Silvani	Guest appearance
2020	Slow Dancing	Gareth
2022	Sunny Side Up	Alex Rajendran		^[16]
2023	Downstairs	Himself	Guest appearance

Skit & Entertainment

Year	Name of Show	Role	Notes
1994	Live On 5	Host
1994	Gurmit's World	Host and lead actor	Portrayed many different characters and also Phua Chu Kang as well
1995	Family Fun Show
	Toa Payoh Roadshow
	TCS 1st Anniversary
1996	Gotcha!	Host
	Courtesy Show
	TCS 2nd Anniversary
	Singapore National Day Parade	Host
1997	A National Day Special	Host
	Anti-Smoking Show
	Terry Fox Run
	Courtesy Show
	A Nation Connects
	Singapore National Day Parade	Host
	Anti-Drug Show
	Disney Fest
1998	Tonight With Gurmit	Host
	Courtesy Campaign 20th Anniversary
	Asian Television Awards Show
	SingTel Hello Concert
	High on Life
	Singapore National Day Parade	Host
	Anti-Drug Show
	Swing Singapore Party
	President Star's Charity
1999	MediaCorp All Star Charity
	Millennium Swing
	Singapore National Day Parade	Host
	Tonight With Gurmit	Host
	Anti-Drug Show
	President Star's Charity
2000	Singapore National Day Parade	Host
2000	Tonight With Gurmit	Host
2001	2MM
	National Crime Prevention Show
	President Star's Charity
2002	Miss Singapore/Universe 2002
	Singapore National Day Parade	Host
	Health Matters
	President Star's Charity
2003	Gurmit's Small Talk
2003	Singapore National Day Parade	Host
2004	Singapore Idol	Host
2004	Singapore National Day Parade	Host
2005	Our Makan Places: Lost and Found	Host
	A Blessed Christmas	Phua Chu Kang
	Singapore National Day Parade	Host
	Sky Symphony Countdown 2006	Host
2006	Coffee Talk & Hawker Woks Season 3		Guest appearance
	Singapore Idol (season 2)	Host
	Our Makan Places: Lost and Found (season 2)	Host
	Singapore National Day Parade	Host
	President Star's Charity
	Countdown 2007 at VivoCity	Host
2007	Countdown 2008 at VivoCity	Host
2008	Don't Forget the Lyrics! (English version)	Host
	Our Makan Places: Lost and Found (season 3)	Host
	Countdown 2009 at Marina Bay	Host
2009	New City Beat 城人新杂志	Co-hosted with Bryan Wong, Kym Ng and Adrian Pang
	Singapore Idol (season 3)	Host
	Singapore National Day Parade	Host
2010	Singapore National Day Parade	Host
2011	Singapore National Day Parade	Host
2012	Our Makan Places: Lost and Found (season 4)	Host
2012	Singapore National Day Parade	Host
2013	Singapore National Day Parade	Host
2014	Our Makan Places: Lost and Found (season 5)	Host
2016	Don't Forget to Remember	Host
2018	Our Makan Places: Lost and Found (season 6)	Host
2018	Singapore National Day Parade	Host
2022	Kin: The Farewell Special	Host

2024 & 2025: Host For Mediacorp's National Day Concert by Gardens' By The Bay

Others

Year	Name of Show	Role
1998	Beauty World: The Musical	TBA
2000	My Lonely Tarts	TBA
2005	Phua Chu Kang - The Musical	Phua Chu Kang

Accolades

Star Awards – Popularity Awards
Year	Ceremony	Accolade	Representative Work	Results
2002	Star Awards	Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes	—	Won
2003	Star Awards	Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes	—	Won
2003	Star Awards	Star Awards for Most Popular Regional Artiste (Malaysia)	—	Nominated
2004	Star Awards	Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes	—	Nominated
2005	Star Awards	Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes	—	Won
2006	Star Awards	Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes	—	Won
2007	Star Awards	Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes	—	Won
2009	Star Awards	Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes	—	Nominated
2010	Star Awards	Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes	—	Nominated
2011	Star Awards	Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes	—	Nominated
2012	Star Awards	Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes	—	Nominated
2014	Star Awards	Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes	—	Nominated
2007	44th Golden Horse Awards	Award for Best Actor	Just Follow Law	Nominated

Discography

Albums

Sing Singapore 2002 : One (We Are One) (2002) duet with Tay Ping Hui
One Leg Kicking Original Soundtrack: 'Calling': "Into The House" (2001)
Moments Gurmit's debut album (2015)
Gurmit Goes Local (1995) comedy album

Compilations

A Happy Journey Starts Like That! (2009)
The PCK Sar-vivor Rap (2003)
Love, No Boundaries: "Into the House" (2001) [album single]

Notes

↑ Punjabi: ਗੁਰਮੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ, romanized: Gurmīt Siṅgh; Chinese :葛米星; pinyin :Gémǐ Xīng

References

↑ Sun, David (8 June 2021). "Gurmit Singh gets 3-month driving ban, $800 fine for speeding at 131kmh with son in car". The Straits Times. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
↑ Fong, Kai (19 March 2012). "I'm not the funnyman people think I am: Gurmit Singh". Yahoo. Yahoo Singapore. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
↑ "Winners - Asian Television Awards". Asian Television Awards. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
↑ Mak Mun San (5 September 2006). "The real Gurmit Singh". The Star. Malaysia.
↑ "A peak into Singapore's sitcom hero and Malaysia's too". Korean Press. 23 April 2010. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011.
↑ "Broken to the Core; Transformed by God - Gurmit Singh". christianitymalaysia.com. Archived from the original on 12 August 2023. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
↑ Renuga, M.; Neo Tiong Seng (1 February 2018). "Outram Secondary School". Singapore Infopedia. National Library Board. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
↑ "Gurmit Singh's family enjoys new member". AsiaOne. 16 August 2013. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
↑ "campsite of npcc alumni: Gurmit Singh". NPCC Alumni. Singapore: National Police Cadet Corps Alumni Association. 24 January 2007.
↑ https://www.nst.com.my/lifestyle/groove/2024/11/1131647/showbiz-phua-chu-kangs-gurmit-singh-impresses-local-podcasters#:~:text=%22And%20since%20I%20have%20many,dancer%20instead%20of%20a%20comedian.
↑ Ma, Kevin. "Golden Wau nominations favour Aniu, Chiu, Teh". Film Business Asia. Archived from the original on 1 June 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
↑ Singh, Bryna (26 October 2014). "Readers vote: Which Madame Tussauds Singapore wax figure looks most like the real McCoy?". Singapore Press Holdings. The Straits Times. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
↑ Seah, May (28 November 2014). "Gurmit quits his day job". MediaCorp. TODAY. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
↑ Van, Tong (23 August 2020). "Phua Chu Kang signed as Shopee's first Singaporean brand ambassador". Inside Retail.
↑ Elley, Derek (22 March 2002). "One Leg Kicking". Variety. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
↑ "'Heart was aching': Wang Yuqing and Gurmit Singh share poignant parenting memories". AsiaOne. 18 June 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2023.

External links

Gurmit Singh at IMDb

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[2] Punjabi: ਗੁਰਮੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ, romanized: Gurmīt Siṅgh; Chinese :葛米星; pinyin :Gémǐ Xīng

[1] Sun, David (8 June 2021). "Gurmit Singh gets 3-month driving ban, $800 fine for speeding at 131kmh with son in car". The Straits Times. Retrieved 8 June 2021.

[3] Fong, Kai (19 March 2012). "I'm not the funnyman people think I am: Gurmit Singh". Yahoo. Yahoo Singapore. Retrieved 22 March 2016.

[4] "Winners - Asian Television Awards". Asian Television Awards. Retrieved 22 March 2016.

[5] Mak Mun San (5 September 2006). "The real Gurmit Singh". The Star. Malaysia.

[6] "A peak into Singapore's sitcom hero and Malaysia's too". Korean Press. 23 April 2010. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011.

[7] "Broken to the Core; Transformed by God - Gurmit Singh". christianitymalaysia.com. Archived from the original on 12 August 2023. Retrieved 12 August 2023.

[8] Renuga, M.; Neo Tiong Seng (1 February 2018). "Outram Secondary School". Singapore Infopedia. National Library Board. Retrieved 9 June 2021.

[9] "Gurmit Singh's family enjoys new member". AsiaOne. 16 August 2013. Retrieved 9 June 2021.

[10] "campsite of npcc alumni: Gurmit Singh". NPCC Alumni. Singapore: National Police Cadet Corps Alumni Association. 24 January 2007.

[11] ttps://www.nst.com.my/lifestyle/groove/2024/11/1131647/showbiz-phua-chu-kangs-gurmit-singh-impresses-local-podcasters#:~:text=%22And%20since%20I%20have%20many,dancer%20instead%20of%20a%20comedian.

[12] Ma, Kevin. "Golden Wau nominations favour Aniu, Chiu, Teh". Film Business Asia. Archived from the original on 1 June 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2016.

[13] Singh, Bryna (26 October 2014). "Readers vote: Which Madame Tussauds Singapore wax figure looks most like the real McCoy?". Singapore Press Holdings. The Straits Times. Retrieved 27 October 2014.

[14] Seah, May (28 November 2014). "Gurmit quits his day job". MediaCorp. TODAY. Retrieved 28 November 2014.

[15] Van, Tong (23 August 2020). "Phua Chu Kang signed as Shopee's first Singaporean brand ambassador". Inside Retail.

[16] Elley, Derek (22 March 2002). "One Leg Kicking". Variety. Retrieved 30 November 2023.

[17] "'Heart was aching': Wang Yuqing and Gurmit Singh share poignant parenting memories". AsiaOne. 18 June 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2023.

[1]

[a]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

v t e Singapore Idol
Winners	Taufik Batisah Hady Mirza Sezairi Sezali
Runners-up	Sylvester Sim Jonathan Leong Sylvia Ratonel
Other alumni	Olinda Cho Daphne Khoo Maia Lee Rahimah Rahim Tabitha Nauser

Authority control databases
International	ISNI VIAF WorldCat
National	United States
Other	Yale LUX

Gurmit Singh
Gurmit in 2024
Born	Gurmit Ottawan Singh Virk^[1] (1965-03-24) 24 March 1965 (age 60) Singapore
Education	Outram Secondary School
Occupation(s)	Actor, Comedian, Host
Years active	1994–present
Notable work	Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd Phua Chu Kang Sdn Bhd Phua Chu Kang The Movie
Spouse	Melissa Wong (m. 1995)
Children	3