Actors - Lea Salonga

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	Actors - Lea Salonga

Lea Salonga-Chien (born on February 22, 1971 in Manila) is an actress and singer from the Philippines who achieved international recognition for her portrayal of Kim, the lead role in the musical Miss Saigon and as Eponine in Les Misérables. She is of Tagalog descent.

She is currently married to Robert Chien, a Japanese-Chinese marketing executive at a computer company in Los Angeles, with whom she is expecting her first child. She was previously engaged twice before -- first to Richard Grau, a fellow Filipino who worked on Wall Street, and then to Michael Lee, a Korean-American fellow performer.

Early years

Lea Salonga was born Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga to Feliciano Salonga and Ligaya Imutan, who were never legally married because her father already had a wife and children, with whom he still lives today. She spent the first six years of her childhood in Angeles City, Pampanga, before moving to Manila.

She and her brother Gerard Salonga grew up without having a proper father figure living with them. To this day, they have a rocky relationship, barely speaking to their father, because he never left his family for their mother. She and her family are devout Roman Catholics even though she has non-traditional parentage, and was born of an illicit affair.

Career

At the age of seven, she made her professional debut in the Philippines by starring in the play The King and I
by Repertory Philippines. She has since appeared in other plays, such as: Annie
, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Fiddler on the Roof
, The Rose Tattoo
, The Sound Of Music, The Goodbye Girl
, Paper Moon
, The Fantasticks and Flower Drum Song
.

She began her professional music career at the age of ten when she recorded her first album, Small Voice, which received a gold record in the Philippines. She has also hosted her own musical television show, Love, Lea, and opened for Stevie Wonder during his concert in Manila. At age 13, she won three Aliw Awards for Best Child Entertainer from 1981 to 1983. In 1983, her sophomore album, "Lea" was released.

Her biggest breakthrough came when she was selected to play the leading role of Kim in the musical Miss Saigon in 1989.

Although not familiar with the composers of "Miss Saigon", Lea Salonga chose to sing Boublil and Schönberg's "On My Own" from "Les Miserables". The members of the panel were "bowled over" by Lea's rendition of the song.

For her outstanding performance, Lea Salonga was given the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Entertainment for the 1989/1990 season. From its original London home, Miss Saigon moved to Broadway in 1991. Lea Salonga subsequently garnered the Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for the same role.

In 1993, Lea Salonga played the role of street waif Eponine in the Broadway production of Les Misérables, then flew to Los Angeles to perform the song "A Whole New World" (of Disney's Aladdin) at the 65th Annual Academy Awards, where the song won an Oscar. In the same year she released her self-titled international debut album with Atlantic Records, which has gone 4x Platinum in the Philippines, but sold slowly in the USA.

Lea was invited by Sir Cameron Mackintosh to play one of the Eponines for the 10th Anniversary concert of "Les Miserables" at London's Royal Albert Hall. Lea performed alongside a "dream cast" composed of Colm Wilkinson, Michael Ball, Judy Kuhn, and Philip Quast.

Lea then played in various musical theater productions around the Philippines and Singapore and was a singer-for-hire for various private parties. She notably starred in foreign productions as Sandy in "Grease", Sonia Walsk in "They're Playing Our Song" and as the witch in Into The Woods. In 1997, "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" was released to gold sales in the Philippines. It was followed up by "Lea... In Love" in 1998. "By Heart" followed two years later, both albums reaching multiple platinum status in the Philippines.

In 2001, Ms. Salonga had a grand homecoming via the Manila production of "Miss Saigon" staged at the cavernous Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Lea's Disney film credits include the singing voice of Jasmine for Aladdin (1992) and Fa Mulan for Mulan
(1998).

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Lea Salonga ]

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Actors - Lea Salonga

Early years

Career

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