From “Chinese Cutie” to “Chinita Princess”: The stellar showbiz journey of Kim Chiu

In the almost two decades that she’s been in the local entertainment scene, Kim Chiu has already cemented her status as one of the most bankable artists of her generation. With top-rating series, well-loved movies, and chart-topping songs under her belt, there’s definitely no doubt that she’s one of the biggest and brightest stars in the country at present.

However, just when we thought that we’d already seen all her facets through the years, she has proven us wrong over and over again as she consistently takes her every performance up a notch. And that’s exactly what she did in Linlang, which the much-awaited teleserye version will finally premiere this coming January 22.

Certainly, many of us are already looking forward to seeing it because of how absolutely controversial it was when it was first launched on Amazon Prime. While we’re still waiting for the D-day, let’s look back first on Kim’s noteworthy showbiz journey in this Kapamilya Spotlight feature!

For Kim, it all started when she joined Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition 1 in 2006, wherein she was dubbed the “Chinese Cutie ng Cebu.” Due to her charming and bubbly personality, she was immensely loved by her housemates and the public, which made it possible for her to be hailed as the Big Winner.

A string of acting projects immediately welcomed her as soon as she returned to the outside world. She did several episodes of Love Spell Presents, Your Song Presents, and Wansapantaym through which she was able to showcase and hone her acting chops, and also got cast in the weekly sitcom Aalog-Alog.

Just in her freshman year, she was already able to cross out from her list one of every Kapamilya artist’s dreams: to appear in an episode of Maalaala Mo Kaya. Along with her former onscreen loveteam partner and fellow PBB alumni Gerald Anderson, they top-billed its remarkable “Bus” episode.

Her first-ever teleserye was Sana Maulit Muli (2007), in which she impressed us with her portrayal of Jasmine “Poknat” Sta. Maria. Due to her promising performance and her growing popularity, that was followed by a slew of series.

She took on the titular role of Jasmine Estocapio in the Filipino adaptation of the Korean drama My Girl in 2008, which was followed by her appearance in Sineserye Presents: The Susan Roces Cinema Collection: Maligno. The following year, she was among the headliners of the iconic primetime series Tayong Dalawa, playing the character of Audrey King.

Since then, Kim has been astounding us with her dramatic prowess through her portrayals in her next teleserye stints. She portrayed the rebellious teenager Gwen Marie Crisanto in Kung Tayo’y Magkakalayo (2010), then had a special participation in Minsan Lang Kita Iibigin (2011) as the younger version of Lorna Tolentino’s character Alondra Sebastiano-del Tierro. We got to see her bubbly side onscreen as took the titular character Jade in My Binondo Girl (2011).

In 2012, we got to witness the Chinita Princess’ intensity as an actress when she played the roles of Celyn Buenaventura in Ina, Kapatid, Anak. We then got to see her portray two different characters in the first and second book of the 2014 soap opera Ikaw Lamang. She was Isabel Miravelez-Hidalgo in the first book, which encompassed the period between 1964 to 1984, and Andrea Hidalgo / Jacq Sanggalang in the second book, which was set in the present.

She then made a teleserye comeback in 2016 through The Story Of Us, in which she endeared us with her portrayal of Tin Manalo. Her much-awaited reunion project with her ex-loveteam partner Gerald Anderson happened in 2017 when they top-billed the daytime series Ikaw Lang Ang Iibigin.

Three years later, she made sure that her return would be remarkable as she played the role of Jia Wong, the mistress of the character of her former real-and-reel-life sweetheart Xian Lim in the 2020 soap opera Love Thy Woman.

Kim was also able to exhibit her versatility and top-notch acting prowess in several episodes of Maalaala Mo Kaya, such as “Notebook” (2008), “Bimpo” (2010), “Kape” (2011), “Kalendaryo” (2012), “Korona” (2016), “Sulat” (2017), “Tangke” (2018), “Mata” (2018), and “MVP” (2018).