Shaun Tam is the New TVB Actor to Watch
38-year-old Shaun Tam (譚俊彥), son of Ti Lung (狄龍), left his career in Mainland China after starting a family with his wife, Ren Zhiyan (任祉妍). Having decided to focus his career in Hong Kong, Shaun signed with TVB to be a managed artiste, and immediately snagged his first role as the Jiaqing Emperor in Succession War <天命>.
Two years into the TVB family, Shaun is already well-integrated and popular. After co-starring with Ruco Chan (陳展鵬) in Succession War, Shaun earned another lead role in The Stunt <特技人>. Shaun has just completed work for Justice Bao: The First Year <包青天再起風雲> and is currently filming The Killing from 18 Years Ago <十八年後的殺人告白>, both in leading roles. It has also been reported that Shaun has agreed to film the upcoming Forensic Heroes IV <法證先鋒IV> as the male lead.
It’s not easy being a popular TVB actor and a father of two young children, but Shaun has managed to balance both. Shaun would spend time with his family during breaks, and in a recent paparazzi spotting, Shaun and his wife were seen taking their daughter and son to lunch at a nearby shopping mall. The family also stopped by a shoe store to purchase some kids shoes.
In a recent event to promote The Stunt, Shaun expressed his feelings about being a newcomer all over again, saying, “The cast and crew for this drama are all relatively new, so we worked really hard on it. We can’t look bad! It’s already been a year since we filmed the show, bout our group chat is still as active as ever. We just have so many things to talk about.”
Source: On.cc
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
I managed to finish one episode of the The Stunt series and I have to agree he is HOT. haha….lol….No clue who he is but it’s so refreshing to see new faces and he looks so good. Not at all surprise he will be the newly popular face of TVB. 😀
Daddy as
That said though he’s very raw (good thing) and I think he’s a fine actor.
Why him? His acting was terrible in Succession War.
Why does he look so familiar? Like I have seen him in TVB back in the days or something…?
Of course TVB is gonna promote him! While everyone is leaving for mainland, a good looking actor from mainland go back to HK to sign with them. Quite shocking nowadays! I hope more former TVB actors actresses come back to their root.
@kaykay408 He is son of Ti Lung (狄龍)
@kaykay408 He probably looks familiar because he is Ti Lung’s son (he actually does look like Ti Lung when he was younger). Shaun had never filmed for TVB until he signed with them last year. Before shifting his career to Mainland, he mostly participated in HK movies – he debuted back in 2001 (17 years ago) and has been active in the industry since then, so he’s not exactly a newbie in terms of acting. I didn’t watch Succession Wars so can’t vouch for his acting in there but the reason I remember him is because he was in one of my favorite HK movies of all time – July Rhapsody, which was made back in 2002 (he played Jacky Cheung and Anita Mui’s son) — his role in that movie was minimal of course, but still…
@llwy12 Oh I see. I think I know why he looks familiar now. From my memory he looks kinda like Hawick Lau before the plastic surgery (when Hawick is still with TVB). Just me lol.
Speaking of that movie, I had a love and hate relationship with it. I even hated Karena at the time haha.
His dad played Justice Bao in the 1994 ‘Justice Pao’ series and now he’s playing the young version of Justice Pao in ‘Justice Bao: The First Year’. 😀
@kidd Great for marketing isn’t it.
Shaun Tam has a lot of charisma and onscreen presence. I think he’s very much on his way to becoming the top lead within the shortest amount of time. TVB will find it impossible to keep hold of Shaun though once his popularity goes through the roof….
I don’t think he has fab actings skills, but he is not bad either. He seems to be quite down to earth and friendly and very well-mannered. I disliked his XImen Chui Xue (in fact the whole series was horrible so maybe not his fault), but he does do better in other series. And he had improved a lot in SW.
I do think he is moldable if he learns better control of his facial expressions and I do have a liking for him. I like hard working people. He is also very masculine, which is good as some TVB series may have muscles but tend to be more boyish looking and not suitable for some more commanding roles.
I would rather watch him than some other TVB male leads. But I hope TVB does not try to hype him up too much or people will start hating him. He already has a hard enough time being compared to his father all the time.
What happened to Ruco Chan? TVB seemed to have dropped him after Sucession War series last year? Is his career as good as dead?
@loveruco not dead but other plans. Perhaps.
@loveruco he’s on break, and will film a drama with jazz later this year
Why him but why not him? Who’s left in TVB?? Presentable, good onscreen presence, charisma, decent acting… Is there room for improvement, definitely.
He’s going to do well. He’s tall, attractive, and can act pretty well. He has room for improvement, but he is getting a good variety of lead roles to hone those skills. He is the “it” guy right now.
Why oh why? I watched one episode of The Stuntman and I did not like him. He had the same face through out the entire episode. I was looking forward to Forensic Heroes 4 too.
I like him a lot. Acting is raw but in his rawness some freshness that I love watching. He can lead. He has an imposing figure and he has great chemistry with anyone he’s with. I like his voice and I certainly think he’s hot in a masculine way. Since hes married with children that is great because no worries about hiding relationships. He’s the reason I finished succession war. But isn’t he overworked and potentially overexposed with so many series? Though all varied roles. Tvb must have seen something in himnor he has an amazing agent.
@funnlim Nah, I wouldn’t give TVB so much credit. Shaun actually signed with TVB because of his dad, who connected him with the station when he expressed interest in moving his career back to HK. TVB has a severe shortage of competent actors/actresses right now and Shaun is definitely presentable (good looks, decent acting, well-mannered, wholesome image, obedient, etc.) – plus they can “milk” the connection with Ti Lung to their advantage (which was already obvious when they cast Shaun in Justice Pao, which was an “iconic” role for his father). Knowing TVB though, they are going to make the same mistake they make with everyone else who signs on with them – they are going to overexpose and overpromote him to the point that audiences are going to get sick of seeing him on their screens 24/7 (already, there are complaints that TVB is airing two of his series back to back). Yes, the roles that he plays in those series are varied, so that’s good for his development (at least he’s not being typecasted – well, not yet….) but in the hands of the current TVB management team (a team that we all know is incompetent), those performances are pretty much going to be wasted effort….
@llwy12 I wonder how long he is signed to TVB for?
@elizabeth Probably the normal 3-5 year contract (and I remembered wrong — he actually signed in 2016, not last year)….to be honest though, technically TVB needs Shaun more than Shaun needs TVB – aside from what was mentioned above (his looks plus decent acting skills), Shaun’s experience in the industry and also the fact that he comes from a family of entertainers (which makes him well-connected), all of that combined put him at a distinct advantage over the others (which is why it’s not surprising that he is given lead roles from the getgo). Aside from his super famous father, his mom was also a former actress (though not very famous since she was only in the industry for a short time and retired after marrying Ti Lung)….he’s also got famous cousins as well in the super talented Lamb siblings — Sandy, Jan, and Jerry (their mom is Ti Lung’s sister). To be honest, when I first heard that Shaun signed a management contract with TVB, I was surprised, as I thought he would’ve been better off signing Sandy as his manager, since she has a good track record plus she’s got so many big name connections in the industry (across all disciplines — television, movie, music, and radio)….but I guess since the reason why he decided to stay in HK in the first place is so he can be with his family, probably didn’t matter as much who he signed with, as it doesn’t look like he is aiming to be a consummate actor or anything like that anyway…his priority is very obviously his family…
Uhhh Shaun isn’t popular from what I’ve seen on other media sites. His acting was heavily criticized in Succession War and he has received negative attention because TVB is forcefully making his name known (he did an interview on it). I also read somewhere that they postponed the airing of The Stunt for a week because TVB wanted to give audiences a break from him because reception was so low for Succession War. The Stunt is doing well with viewership ratings so opinions on him may change.
I like him in the Stunt. Can’t stand the main girl though. Wish TVB gave that role to someone else. Such a waste.
@kaykay408 I know, me too I cant stand that main girl. The other one is much more attractive but she’s always a supporting. Other countries, they might give unknowns to lead once in a blue moon but TVB never. Stupid as hell always the same old faces all the time.
@kaykay408
I really like Rebecca Chu because she is pretty and does seem to enjoy taking hold of her scenes well. Kelly Fu on the other hand can only play annoying support characters though I liked her in Swipe Tap Love…
@jimmyszeto I agree. Rebecca Zhu is one of the better actresses compared to the new generation of actresses. I enjoy watching her on screen. She has this very sweet and down to earth persona, and she is very pretty. Other actresses just scream annoying to me when I look at them. In fact, I thought the opposite about her new drama. I felt the male lead should have been someone else. I was glad to see Rebecca Zhu as the female lead. If she can improve her HK accent, she would be a top favorite.
@peachyogurt
Yes. Rebecca is one of the few who has poor pronounciation of Cantonese but it is still clear enough to be energetic and cute. Easily trounces the likes of Christine Kuo and Eliza in the acting department.Similar to Fala but Fala is much more unnatural when playing playful characters. I’m sure Fala will have improved from her studies by now though.
@jimmyszeto I agree with you about Kelly Fu. I did like her in Swipe Tap Love too but not other series. I used to like Rebecca Zhu in Always and Ever but TVB has been promoting her too fast when she’s not up there yet. If she was put in supporting role I would probably like her better. The fact that her Cantonese still sucks but she’s the lead girl bothers me a lot. But it’s TVB so. They don’t care if main actresses can’t speak Cantonese anymore. Hell they are focusing on the mainland viewers anyways so who knows maybe one day they will make them speak mandarin in the series. And Rebecca Zhu was from mainland to begin with. Coincidence? I don’t think so. The agenda started when they gave her the undeserving award last year
Wow so he’s been in this industry for that long and still manages to be such a terrible actor. Only seen him in SW and he was really bland. He cannot evoke internal emotions like through his eyes or his voice. He’s only acting from the outside like frown when he’s sad or twitches his face when he’s mad. He has like 3 different face expressions for 3 different emotion and that’s it.
@iatboc I disagree. I know who his Jiaqing is, very clear. He may be over emo but I can understand why after a while. I retrospect he was excellent.
@funnlim
Shaun Tam acting reminds me of Alex Fong Chung Sun. Not full of expressions but each expression mean an awful lot and is as cool as anything. I love that kind of actor with scene presence….
@jimmyszeto I like Alex Fong as well.
@jimmyszeto Alex Fong is sexy as hell when he is acting. Anyway I think Shaun is more intense Alex more laid back.
@funnlim
Shaun is a bit more relaxed in ‘The Stunt’ than ‘Succession War’. Yes. I think Alex is hunky and the coolest guy on earth with his few expressions and the tone in which he speaks. It is beyond me when people calls him wooden when being ultra cool is his selling point…