And The Crown Goes To …

…GRACE CHAN, for being an absolute Miss Congeniality to shoot, interview and spend time with. The 25-year-old Hongkong-born, Canada-raised beauty queen-turned-TVB actress is such a cool cat, she doesn’t mind doing a photo shoot on a personal holiday, being asked for the umpteenth time whether she’s really Chinese, and getting quizzed about the 22-year age gap between her and her heartthrob actor beau, Kevin Cheng.

- Celine Tan

Sorry, Kevin Cheng, but your girlfriend looks not a day older than 25. From her cheery “Hi! I’m Grace!” when we meet, to her perky Canadian lilt, from the way she chats a mile-a minute with the make-up artist and hairstylist, to the cheeky selfies she takes to document the progress of the biggest hair she’s ever rocked for a photo shoot, the actress is the epitome of youthful energy, girlish vigour oozing from every perfect pore. You see, Grace tells us that every time you spot a wrinkle or any signs of ageing in her flawless face, you cackle with delight and tell her that she’s catching up with you. Of course, you don’t look like you’re 47, but nope, Grace is definitely in no way catching up in terms of age. She’s doing her darndest to get her career to match up with yours, though. We’re sitting here in the 8 DAYS photo studio braiding Grace Chan’s hair. True story. For those who don’t watch Cantonese dramas, Grace Chan is the Bambi-eyed beauty who joined the Miss Hong Kong pageant in 2013, won it, and like countless winners before her, stumbled onto acting when she was offered a TVB contract. Her rise was meteoric. She landed her first role as a supporting character in 2014’s Overachievers. Promoted heavily by the station, she soon moved on to headline the 2015 drama Captain of Destiny, where she played a time-travelling policewoman who gets mixed up with a bunch of pirates. Thrown into the deep end (literally), her performance was panned, with respected veteran actor Anthony Wong calling her acting “annoying.” Ouch. Those with no interest in Hongkong TV may know her as Hongkong showbiz A-lister Kevin Cheng’s girlfriend of one and-a-half years. The pair met while shooting Blue Veins