It is a fact that the arts are interconnected as you see more and more singers who can dance, act, and write. Without a doubt, it is hard not to mesh all four or at least learn all those disciplines to become a well-rounded artist. This is the case for Malaysian native Timmy Ong. Based in Manhattan, he is an actor, singer, musician, dancer, choreographer, writer, filmmaker, and even puppeteer and maker.
With a Bachelor of Technology, he has both freelanced as an artist and worked in the corporate world in his home country, having a taste of opposite worlds before deciding that the arts are a much better fit for him. However, he thinks that his corporate experience helps him as an artist.
“I would like to think that I am an organized actor, and I work in a structured manner–well, as organized as the world of show business allows me to be anyway. I strive to set clear expectations about my work and have clear communication but stripping away corporate-speak and inserting more heart. More importantly, I understand working as a gear in a bigger system, and the power of visibility–you may be surprised how many people in the corporate world get promoted because they “stand out” as a personality trait! For example, I am not afraid to pitch myself to casting if I come across a role that I think fits me well, because even if they don’t think I am a good fit, I have now made myself visible to that office.”
He has starred in leading and featured roles in large-scale original musicals in Malaysia, such as Gopal in “Xuan Zang: Journey to the West” which was nominated for seven BOH Cameronian Arts Awards, the Malaysian equivalent of the Tony Awards, and Father Breton in “Euphrasia The Musical” which was nominated for twelve and won four BOH Cameronian Arts Awards. Other notable works include original leading roles as Ah Cheng in “Di Zang The Musical”, Josh Cagan in “The Retreat”, a Malaysian homegrown whodunnit play, and Jason Anak Robert in “Kelas Tambahan”, which translates to “Extra Class”, another Malaysian homegrown whodunnit play in Malay. English aside, Timmy is fluent in Malay, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Hakka, and has performed in all these languages on both stage and screen. “Serious Cat Talk”, a Mandarin language pilot film about lion dance starred Timmy in the lead and won Best Cinematography in the Around Film Festival (ARFF) Barcelona.
At first, he worked as a performer, but that soon led to teaching, writing, and producing his own work. With six years of experience under his belt, he landed in Manhattan to further pursue his real calling. He took a pause to obtain an MFA in Acting program at The New School of Drama and then took off running again.
When it comes to which discipline he enjoys most, it is difficult to point out just one. Since for Timmy, when he is in a musical, he longs to be in a concert or cabaret; when he is making music, he wants to be in a play. Either way, he understands each genre stands on its merit and nothing pleases him more than collaborating with like-minded artists. Timmy was always in love with the arts but only had the chance to take up the piano when he was fourteen years old. He did not realize until he took up the cello, guitar, and pipa that music was in his blood. While in college, his love for theatre and dance took root. He began studying the art of dance in its many facets. He would blend all these disciplines to make him a well-rounded artist.
His varied skill set led him to very specific projects, such as “Mr. Holland’s Opus, A New Musical”, which required him to not just act, sing, and dance, but also play the cello, and “The Sacrifice of Cassamba Becker”, a play with music that not only needed him to sing and play the guitar and cello but also acts using very particular body language playing an anthropomorphic vulture. For his role of “Procopio the Vulture,” he was nominated for the 2023 BroadwayWorld Off-Broadway Awards for Best Performance in A Play. Drawing from his training in Malaysian traditional dance, he recently worked with Dance China New York, a niche dance company performing Chinese and other Asian cultural dances. He was one out of two male dancers in the company, and the only one who is versed with the company’s full repertoire requiring male dancers.
Beyond performing, his more prominent accomplishment is his commissioned work. He creates theatrically with his writing partner, Nik Waheeda, under the Green-Eyed Monster Project, a theater-making partnership that aims to tell stories with new perspectives and uses theatre as a medium to create social awareness, especially on less discussed subject matters. Significant projects include “Second Chances”, a two-hander one-act play; “The Girl Who Is Not Depressed”, a spoken-word site-specific theater set in a dressing room; “This Is All I Have”, a site-specific movement theater set in a microhouse; and “Soul Food”, a site-specific multi-disciplinary surrealist theater set in a cafe.
Outside of the partnership, Timmy is also a theater maker in his own right. He enjoys blending text, music, dance and more to tell a story. He was most recently commissioned by A.R.T./New York. In conjunction with their 50th anniversary celebration, the organization hosted an open “House Party” featuring a wide variety of performances from various theatre companies. Every corner of the organization’s complex was filled with installations and performances from independent artists that represent the complete identity of the nonprofit theatre community in NYC.
“I was one of the commissioned artists and created two distinct pieces of site-specific theatre for them. I submitted two proposals expecting one to be accepted, but I guess they liked both enough that they wanted both pieces to be made! One was a compilation of well-known scenes in theatre and musical theatre, exploring how many ways a liminal space could be transformed. I wrote and directed the piece and was one of two performers too! The other one is about an alien pig-esque creature passing through Earth; it involved a puppet, which I built in collaboration with another puppeteer named Paige Barry. I am looking to further workshop and develop this piece!”
Currently, Timmy has been invited by the Museum of Chinese in America (MoCA) to develop an upcoming project: a devised and immersive production sharing stories of the New York Chinatown from the 1980s and 1990s. It is envisioned to be a “walking show”, in which the audience moves with the performers from location to location and witnesses snippets of true stories from turbulent bygone times. This project is slated to go up in May 2024. He is also an ensemble member of the Spellbound Theater, a company that creates “baby theatre” for audiences 0-5.
Timmy has been offered to translate their pop-up storytelling show about the subway, titled “Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors, Please” into Mandarin, and will be the only ensemble member capable of performing the show in both languages. A new play by Reid Tang titled “Isabel”, in which he originated the role of Harriet, is being produced by The National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO) and workshopped to premiere Off-Broadway this summer. For the remainder of 2024, he hopes to create more of his own work but will still be auditioning for roles in other projects. Timmy is diverse in his work and is looking to expand his talents wherever possible.
