In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- Not reliably established
- Birthplace
- Not independently established
- Country
- Singapore
- Nationality
- Singaporean
- Known for
- Forever Fever, The Blue Mansion, Revenge of the Pontianak and theatre work including HOTEL
- Disciplines
- Film, theatre and acting
- London stage
- M. Butterfly, 1989
- First feature
- Forever Fever, 1998
- Wild Rice
- Co-Artistic Director since 2002
- HOTEL
- Co-directed with Ivan Heng; premiered in 2015
- Pontianak collaboration
- Co-writer and co-director with Gavin Yap, 2019
Why this life matters
His work links international theatre experience with Singapore stories across popular cinema, historical drama and live performance.
Timeline
Key moments
M. Butterfly
Acted opposite Anthony Hopkins in the London production.
Forever Fever
Directed his first feature film.
Wild Rice leadership
Began the co-artistic role recorded by the company.
The Blue Mansion
His second feature premiered at Busan.
HOTEL premiere
Co-directed the production for its SIFA world premiere.
Theatre recognition
HOTEL received four Life! Theatre Awards.
Adelaide performance
HOTEL headlined the OzAsia Festival.
Revenge of the Pontianak
Shared writing and directing credits with Gavin Yap.
An Inspector Calls
Directed the play for Wild Rice.
An actor before his feature-film career
Glen Goei’s career spans acting, film direction and theatre-making. An early international breakthrough came in 1989, when he appeared opposite Anthony Hopkins in the London production of M. Butterfly. His role there was as a performer, a distinction that matters when tracing his later move into directing.
Wild Rice’s biography records an Olivier nomination for the performance, not an award win. The production placed a Singaporean actor within a major British theatre setting. That experience preceded both his first feature film and the sustained company leadership for which he later became known in Singapore.
Forever Fever and The Blue Mansion
Goei directed Forever Fever in 1998. The musical comedy became a significant early export of Singapore cinema: producer 13 Little Pictures describes it as the first Singapore film presented at Sundance and to obtain worldwide commercial distribution. Those distribution and festival claims come from the production company’s account.
His second feature, The Blue Mansion, followed in 2009 and premiered at Busan. Working across film and theatre allowed him to move between screen storytelling and live ensemble performance. The two features belong to different stages of that career; their existence does not mean his theatre work began only after he stopped making films.
Sources for this section: [3]
Wild Rice, HOTEL and ensemble storytelling
Goei has served as Wild Rice’s Co-Artistic Director since 2002, according to the company’s current team biography. He and Ivan Heng co-directed HOTEL, which premiered at the Singapore International Festival of Arts in 2015. Its setting follows successive occupants of a hotel room across a century of Singapore history.
HOTEL received four Life! Theatre Awards in 2016 and later headlined Adelaide’s OzAsia Festival in 2017. These are production-level achievements involving a wider creative team, not four individual directing prizes for Goei. His later Wild Rice directing work includes An Inspector Calls in the company’s 2023 season.
Revisiting the Pontianak on screen
Revenge of the Pontianak, released in 2019, brought Goei back to feature filmmaking. The production credits name him and Gavin Yap as both writers and directors. Their collaboration revisited the female ghost of Malay supernatural cinema, approaching the familiar figure through her own grievance rather than treating her only as an anonymous threat.
The film adds another register to a career already encompassing musical comedy, family drama and historical theatre. Goei’s recurring importance lies in crossing those forms: actor and director are separate credits, just as an international festival appearance, commercial distribution and a theatre-company role describe different kinds of work.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Glen Goei
- What is Glen Goei known for?
- He is known for films including Forever Fever and The Blue Mansion, his M. Butterfly performance and theatre work with Wild Rice.
- What is his role at Wild Rice?
- Wild Rice identifies him as Co-Artistic Director, a role he has held since 2002.
- Did Glen Goei direct the 1989 M. Butterfly production?
- The verified 1989 credit is acting opposite Anthony Hopkins. It should not be converted into a directing credit.
- Who co-directed Revenge of the Pontianak?
- Glen Goei and Gavin Yap share the film’s writing and directing credits.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. Wild Rice · current teamCo-Artistic Director role and acting biography
The current company biography uses Co-Artistic Director. An older Associate title is not carried forward. An Olivier nomination is not described as a win.
- 2. City University · research repositoryBritish Asian theatre context and M. Butterfly performance
- 3. 13 Little Pictures · filmmaker biographyForever Fever, Sundance/distribution claim and The Blue Mansion
The Sundance and worldwide-distribution firsts are attributed to the producer’s biography rather than extended to all forms of Singapore filmmaking.
- 4. 13 Little Pictures · production creditsRevenge of the Pontianak writing and directing collaboration
- 5. Wild Rice · 2016 HOTEL awardsFour production-level Life! Theatre Awards
Four awards belong to the HOTEL production and its credited participants, not four personal directing awards.
- 6. Wild Rice · 2023 seasonAn Inspector Calls and HOTEL’s 2015/2017 performance history
- 7. Wikimedia Commons · TigerTiger ProductionsOwn-work supplied portrait and CC BY 3.0
TigerTiger Productions identifies this supplied portrait as its own work under CC BY 3.0. No original shooting date is supplied, so one is not invented.
