Ivan Heng

Ivan Heng (Chinese: 王愛仁; pinyin: Wáng Àirén; born 20 September 1963) is a Singaporean actor and theatre director of Hokkien and Peranakan descent. He is the founding artistic director of W!LD RICE, a theatre company in Singapore, and an outspoken advocate for respect for diversity and freedom of expression.

Heng is the first male Singaporean actor to break into English-speaking roles in Hollywood films with his role in Luc Besson's The Fifth Element, the first female actress from Singapore being Lydia Look, who played a Fuzhou actress in a Jackie Chan Hollywood film.

Heng was educated at Anglo-Chinese School, Temasek Junior College and the National University of Singapore, where he read law between 1984 and 1988. He was a qualified lawyer until the acting bug led him to win various theatre awards in Edinburgh, London, Canada and finally Hollywood. Heng was awarded the Cultural Medallion, Singapore's highest arts honour, in 2013.

A theatre director, actor, playwright and designer, Heng's productions are concerned with identity, migration and gender and sexual politics within intercultural contexts. They have played festivals and theatres in more than 20 cities around the world including Melbourne International Arts Festival, New Zealand International Arts Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, ICA International Festival of the Chinese Diaspora (London), Hong Kong City Festival, Royal Tropical Institute (Netherlands), SIETAR Congress (Munich), WOTM Conference (Belgium) and Re:Map Festival (Copenhagen).

Heng’s background is in both Asian and Western theatre traditions: training as a director with Kuo Pao Kun of Practice Performing Arts in Singapore; ballet, jazz and contemporary dance as a scholar with Dance Arts Singapore; and training with the Peking Opera in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Tang's Opera Troupe) and Singapore (Leling Peking Opera Troupe, Chinese Theatre Circle). He also spent a summer at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford. His mentor, colleague and closest collaborator was with whom he collaborated on M. Butterfly, The Coffin is too Big for the Hole, No Parking on Odd Days, Emily of Emerald Hill and The Visit of the Tai tai.

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