Jeanette Aw Ee-Ping, better known as Ou Xuan, is a Singaporean actress, filmmaker, entrepreneur, and writer.
She made her directorial debut with The Last Entry in 2018. According to The Straits Times, she has also produced her second film, Senses, and held an art exhibition in Japan.
Scroll through her social media feed, and you’ll notice that she dabbles in various activities, a natural extension of her underlying desire to create.
Jeanette is a well-known actress. Jeanette has received 29 Star Awards during her 15-year career with Mediacorp, demonstrating her celebrity and talent. She has also been nominated for Best Actress at the Star Awards eight times.
Jeanette shocked the industry when she announced in 2017 that she was going solo at the pinnacle of her career, bidding farewell to Mediacorp after 15 years of service. At the same time, she decided to part ways with her management company, Hype Records. Personal development, the environment, that little voice within that grew louder, and the universe indicating it was time for Jeanette to move on; she also felt she had reached a plateau and desired more control over her career.
She owns a production company. When Jeanette decided to try her hand at filmmaking, she established the production company Picturesque Films in 2012. But it wasn’t until 2017 that she put her foot down. Jeanette went on to write, produce, and direct her first short film, The Last Entry. The film, inspired by her godmother’s Alzheimer’s disease struggles, received a nomination at the prestigious Tokyo Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2018. She went on to make her second short film, Senses. Picturesque Films has also shot commercial projects such as social media campaigns for beauty and fashion.
Jeanette has written and published books. The multi-hyphenate never seems to stop. Jeanette Aw: Definitions, a memoir that sheds light on the personal aspects of her life, including a breast cancer scare and playing mother to her three godchildren, was published in 2012. In 2015, she released the picture book Sol’s World: Someone to Love.
She used to write about fashion and fashion trends. Jeanette combined her love of fashion and writing when she announced in 2018 that she and a partner had launched the fashion website Curatededition. Jeanette’s most recent byline was from the same year.
Jeanette has always waxed poetic about her love of art and her desire to create something new on canvas. Jeanette likes to see something strange come to life. She wants to colour it. Sometimes, Jeanette likes it better in black and white. She appreciates how her emotions are conveyed in this manner.
Jeanette Aw was in Tokyo pursuing her Le Cordon Bleu certificate and holding a solo art exhibition and book launch for the Japanese reprint of Sol’s World: Somebody To Love.
While it may be challenging to imagine Jeanette as anything other than an actress, she almost became a child psychologist. Jeanette revealed that she “considered majoring in child psychology” because she enjoys working with children.
Jeanette began ballet training at 13 and continued dancing almost daily until she signed her first acting contract. Jeanette, who participated in gymnastics in primary school and saxophone in her secondary school band, was president of the NUS Dance Ensemble while attending the National University of Singapore. She performed many dance sequences in the Channel 8 drama The Rainbow Connection, where she played Ding Yingying (aka Yoyo), a talented dancer with stage fright.
Jeanette relocated to Bangkok in 2018 and enrolled in the Le Cordon Bleu Dusit Culinary School to pursue a Diploma in Patisserie. She has always enjoyed baking, so becoming certified seemed the next logical step. Jeanette also had the opportunity to do so. In an interview, Jeanette stated that she wanted the nine-month course because, while she was busy, Jeanette was able to enjoy regular hours and weekends, which she did not have as a hectic artiste. While she hasn’t ruled out owning her cafe one day, Jeanette says she needs to think about it carefully due to the high rental costs and may open a pop-up in the future.
Jeanette’s dream came true in May 2021 when she opened her bakery, Once Upon A Time, on Hamilton Road in Jalan Besar.
It all starts with a dream.
It began with an interest that quickly became a passion for creating beautiful bakes that made people happy. It was the most sobering joy Jeanette had ever felt, and she resolved to arm herself with the necessary knowledge, technical skills, and ability to create her recipes. So she put everything aside and went to school. Jeanette’s eyes and heart were opened to the world of pastries by Le Cordon Bleu, and she knew it was only the beginning. Twenty years in the entertainment industry and transitioning into the world of Food & Beverage has had its challenges, and it’s been a long road to get here, especially in such unprecedented times. Jeanette had a small dream, took baby steps to realise it, and has now taken on the chef role.
We frequently forget that celebrities, like us, are human beings with problems. Despite Jeanette’s best efforts, Jeanette struggles with stubborn fat that is difficult to eliminate through diet and exercise. That’s why Jeanette uses CoolSculpting, a non-invasive fat-freezing treatment that freezes fat cells and destroys them to help her maintain her slim figure.
