Showbiz stalwart

IT may seem somewhat counter-intuitive but Ricky Ow - child actor in a Chinese drama at the pivotal age of ten and someone who has spent over two decades in the "show" business - is, self-admittedly, camera shy.

But in a way it explains the chosen career path of the Hong Kong-based Singaporean who for the past five years has been overseeing the Asia-Pacific portfolio of global American media and entertainment giant Turner, part of the WarnerMedia Company. "I was a child actor but I have no talent for it. So instead, I run a TV station," says Mr Ow, president of Turner Asia Pacific, one of the region's largest and most storied international TV broadcasters that owns and operates brands such as 24-hours cable news channel CNN and kids' favourites Cartoon Network and Boomerang.

Mr Ow's acting stint began (and well, ended) in a Chinese drama back in the '70s which aired over Radio and Television Singapore (RTS) - later called Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) and which eventually morphed into MediaCorp - and it was his late actress aunt Wang Xiuyun, well remembered for her roles in local TV dramas in the 1980s and 1990s, who snagged him a role on air.