'My path doesn't have to be the same as everyone else': Shawn Thia's mum let him drop out of school at 15

In a society that places so much emphasis on school education, not every Singapore parent would accept their teenage children dropping out of school.

But for local actor Shawn Thia, his mother allowed him to quit school in Secondary Three so he could find his own alternative path to success.

He told 8Days in a recent interview that there were a lot of things he didn't agree with when he was in school and he also felt the school's discipline team was picking on him.

"Back then, 'cos my mum's a single working mum, she had to come pick me up every day [because of disciplinary incidents]. My mother was busy at that time and she couldn't take it," the 26-year-old said.

"She came down and I remember the first thing she did. She opened the door, threw the car key on the table and told me to go out and start the car.

"I went out but before the door closed, I heard her just destroy my discipline master, with all sorts of vulgarities that I've never heard at home. Hokkien, Cantonese, English, Mandarin too. When she came out of the room, she was like, 'Son, let's not be here anymore'. And that's when I thought that yeah, I think I've had enough."

Shawn said his mum placed more emphasis on his character than academic success. If education was not working out for him, she encouraged him to find employment or do volunteering to build character.

"I just felt like maybe my path doesn't have to be the same as everyone else," he said. "I wanted to prove a lot of people wrong also. That you don't have to really have a super solid education to make it. You just have to know how to be a good person."

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Shawn went on to work in different jobs including as a waiter and in the construction industry and in factories. He did his O levels as a private candidate and enlisted at age 16.

He eventually got a diploma in mass communications from MDIS and took on small acting roles, but found it difficult to earn a living. Even though he found a stable job in the offshore marine sector in 2017, his desire to act never left him.

Shawn's big break came in 2019 when he landed a role in Titoudao which also stars established celebrities like Fann Wong and young actors like Joel Choo and Tasha Low. As production required them to film in Ipoh for three months, he took another leap of faith and quit his job to pursue acting full-time.

The rest, as he said, is history.

Since then, he has been featured in a variety of shows, from the English thriller Reunion to Chinese drama Genie in a Cup, which took the self-proclaimed 'banana' out of his comfort zone.

His current role in Sunny Side Up even has a wholesome side effect: he's currently engaged to his co-star Xenia Tan.

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Catch more of Shawn on Sunny Side Up, Reunion, Genie in a Cup and the reality show Streamers Go Live.

drimac@asiaone.com