{"id":9467,"date":"2025-08-27T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/?p=9467"},"modified":"2025-09-01T14:19:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T06:19:14","slug":"one-life-two-passions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/2025\/08\/27\/one-life-two-passions\/","title":{"rendered":"One Life, Two Passions"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Who she is:<\/strong> Ms Deborah Png is a California-licensed attorney and studio business affairs executive. She has worked on television shows including The Calling<\/em> (2022), Young Rock<\/em> (2021-2023) and American Auto<\/em> (2021-2023). Her most recent projects include We Were Liars<\/em> and the upcoming Ponies<\/em>, starring Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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If you caught the psychological thriller series We Were Liars<\/em> (based on E. Lockhart\u2019s bestseller) on Prime Video, released in June this year, you might be interested to know that Singaporean lawyer and thespian Ms Deborah Png (Law \u201988) worked on its development and production deals. For over a decade, Ms Png has served as a business affairs attorney for companies such as Sony Pictures and NBC Universal, making deals, acquiring intellectual property and handling licensing with platforms including Netflix, Apple and Prime Video.<\/p>

How Ms Png became an entertainment lawyer in Hollywood has its roots in a tragic loss. In 2010, her husband, Curt Ewald, passed away within six weeks of being diagnosed with non-smoker\u2019s lung cancer. At the time, their daughter was just 11 and their son 9. Ms Png immediately went into problem-solving mode. \u201cI had to buy a house because we were renting at the time. And starting that year, my daughter was going to a different school, so I was working out different pickup times.\u201d<\/p>

As a single mother with two school-aged children, Ms Png decided to return to the legal profession. Before moving to the US, she had worked as a lawyer, including with Singapore firm Tan Rajah & Cheah. To work as a lawyer in the US, she would need to pass the Professional Responsibility exam before being allowed to sit for the bar. \u201cI told myself I was just going to study on my own \u2014 and if I passed, then I would take the bar exam.\u201d She passed, signed up for a Bar Review course covering 17 subjects, and then took the bar exam in February 2012. \u201cI was scared about the exam as it had been a long while since law school,\u201d she revealed. \u201cThen while I was taking it, I found myself thinking, \u2018This is so much easier than law school exams in NUS!\u2019\u201d<\/p>

Now qualified to practise, Ms Png decided to pursue a career in entertainment business law. It was not easy, as the US adopts an apprenticeship system. \u201cYou have to start from the bottom \u2014 it doesn’t matter what you’ve done before,\u201d she explained. She started out freelancing, drafting contracts for independent production and distribution companies, including one led by a Bollywood CEO and another focused on movie packaging. \u201cThat one was a good experience. You do deals with actors and distributors, producers, directors and writers, and then you go to a distributor and pre-sell it, and then the financing company will finance it,\u201d she elaborated.<\/p>

Through a string of experiences and recommendations, Ms Png found herself offered the position of business affairs attorney for the international television production division of Sony Pictures Entertainment. \u201cThat was my first executive position as business affairs attorney,\u201d she said.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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After graduating from NUS Law in 1988, Ms Png practiced in Singapore before moving to Hollywood. <\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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LEARNING BY DOING\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

Ms Png graduated from NUS Law in 1988. \u201cThe first thing I remember about law school was one of the first lectures about law and freedom,\u201d she recalled. \u201cThe point was made that there’s no such thing as absolute freedom for everybody. The limit of your freedom is how far your arm can reach before you hit someone.\u201d<\/p>

She also remembers Professor Walter Woon (Law \u201981)\u2014who would later become Attorney-General of Singapore\u2014as a lecturer who was feared by all. \u201cHe was very exacting and demanding, but we were all like, \u2018There\u2019s so much reading to do! We can\u2019t catch up!\u2019 And he said, \u2018Okay, I\u2019ll be available at this time, and everybody can come and ask questions.\u2019 His nice, kind-hearted nature came to the fore.\u201d<\/p>

Ms Png specialised in litigation. One of her favourite classes was with now-Justice Choo Han Teck (Law \u201979). \u201cIt was practical \u2014 everything else was just reading. It was stressful: the midterm exam was a trial, and then the final exam was a major trial. But you\u2019re actually getting up on your feet and doing it.\u201d She practised litigation for three years at Tan Rajah & Cheah, \u201cseeing people at their worst\u201d as they battled it out in court. She then decided to take up a job as in-house legal counsel for Shell.<\/p>

Ms Png\u2019s theatre career blossomed concurrently with her legal career. Before being called to the bar, she was part of the original cast of the musical Beauty World. <\/em>She also toured as a vocalist with Dick Lee on his Mad Chinaman<\/em> tour. Of all the many roles she has played, her favourite remains Gigi in Action Theatre\u2019s Ka-Ra-U-OK<\/em> (1998). \u201cIt was a funny, comedic, heart-rending role,\u201d she recalls of the diva with a tragic backstory. That she is today in both entertainment and law seems natural for someone who has straddled both industries since her 20s. \u201cI feel as if I need both acting and law,\u201d she said. \u201cTo survive, I had to have both.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ms Png\u2019s stage acting credits include (from left) The Joy Luck Club, Ka-Ra-U-OK and Beauty World <\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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CREATING SINGAPORE STORIES FOR A GLOBAL AUDIENCE\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

Ms Png struck out on her own this year with Causal Media Resources, a production label that is dedicated to bringing Southeast Asian stories and talents to a global audience. Trying to be an actress in the US when she moved there in the early 2000s was difficult. There was virtually no differentiation between Asian cultures, and there was \u2014 and still is \u2014\u00a0little content specific to Southeast Asia that speaks to a global viewership.<\/p>

“When I came to the US, I was like \u2018Oh, I’m so irrelevant to the American musical, in particular. They’re never going to cast an Asian in a role that’s not Asian,\u201d she said. \u201cNow there\u2019s Crazy Rich Asians<\/em>, but those roles are still few and far between,\u201d Ms Png noted. \u201cNobody can tell our story the way we can. I want to do more multicultural productions; if we don’t create or develop or produce those stories, no one else is going to do it for us.<\/p>

“Our stories would not be like Squid Game<\/em> or Parasite<\/em> \u2013 those are very Korean; ours would be more multicultural, given our history and where we\u2019re situated. Our audience is not just Singaporean: it\u2019s an American story, a British story and a Southeast Asian story as well.\u201d<\/p>

Ms Png is collaborating with Singapore-born Hollywood actress Lydia Look, Ekachai Uekrongtham as well as theatre veterans she has been working with since her early days. She is currently in the process of pitching projects for development and production and is confident the time is now: \u201cWe have to be writing, creating, developing and producing our own stories in the context of our world, for an international audience.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Entertainment lawyer Ms Deborah Png (Law \u201988) combines her loves \u2013 the law and acting \u2013 in her work in Hollywood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":9468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9467"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9478,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9467\/revisions\/9478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}