From Duke to deportee: 7 things you didn't know about disgraced ex-actor Ian Fang
Benson Ang
The Straits Times
Feb 6, 2026
Once a rising star on local television screens, former actor Ian Fang will be barred from re-entering Singapore after serving his prison term for sexual offences.
The 36-year-old Shanghai-born Chinese national has had his Singapore permanent residence (PR) status revoked and will be deported.
In May 2025, Fang was sentenced to 40 months' jail after pleading guilty to three counts of sexually penetrating a 15-year-old girl. He began serving his time on June 16, 2025.
Throughout his show business career, which began in 2011, he was no stranger to making headlines. Here are seven things to know about the disgraced artiste:
1. Once a "Duke"
In 2014, local broadcaster Mediacorp singled out eight promising young actors and coined them the Eight Dukes of Caldecott Hill, with Fang being one of them.
The others were Desmond Tan, Jeffrey Xu, Romeo Tan, Shane Pow, Xu Bin, Zhang Zhenhuan and Aloysius Pang.
At a 2014 New Year's Eve countdown show, the octet sang and grooved to a medley of 1990s boy band tunes at The Float @ Marina Bay, such as Boyzone's Picture Of You, Backstreet Boys' I Want It That Way and As Long As You Love Me.
Only three from the group - Desmond Tan and Romeo Tan and Jeffrey Xu - are still with Mediacorp and have carved out successful careers.
Pang died in 2019 after a military accident, while Pow had his own run-ins with the law - notably two drink driving incidents, for which he was sentenced in 2014 and 2021.
Fang did not make much inroads as a leading man and left Mediacorp in 2023.
2. Cultivated an on-screen bad-boy image
Part of Fang's appeal from the beginning was his rebellious and dangerous side. In his debut acting role in police series C.L.I.F (2011), he played a rich kid who got into trouble.
In his breakthrough drama On The Fringe (2011), he played Fann Wong's teenage delinquent brother.
And in his first movie Imperfect (2012), about wayward youths, he portrayed an impulsive and belligerent young man.
At one point, he was even described by local media as Singapore's version of Edison Chen, the Hong Kong actor whose career was defined by a 2008 sex photo scandal involving many female celebrities.
However, Fang set the record straight that the attitude-oozing persona did not reflect the real him. He once said in a 2012 interview: "I think I'm quite kind and I like to stay at home. When people say I'm a bad boy, maybe it's just because of my appearance."
3. Won three main Star Awards
At Mediacorp's annual ceremony, he was named Best Newcomer for his performance as a poor student who lost his grandmother in Don't Stop Believin' (2012), beating fellow nominees Elizabeth Lee, Jayley Woo, Shane Pow and Edwin Goh.
During his acceptance speech, he said: "In life, it is better to excel at one thing, instead of being good at three things. I think I have found the one thing I want to excel at, which is to act well and be a good person."
However, unlike his peers, Fang never managed to energise a devoted fan base for himself that would diligently cast public votes for him at the Star Awards. Out of the five times he was nominated in the Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes category, he won only twice - in 2015 and 2017.
4. Romantically linked to actress Rebecca Lim
In the late 2010s, Fang and fellow Mediacorp artiste Rebecca Lim kept fans guessing as to whether they were an item.
The most telling sign occurred at the 2017 Star Awards, when he won the Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes prize.
In his speech, he singled out Lim to thank, calling her his "very good friend" and adding: "You are not just my good friend, you are also a very good role model."
It was only after the local actress, who is now 39, announced in 2021 that she was engaged to Matthew Webster, a Singaporean of British-Chinese descent, that rumours died down.
A few hours before the announcement, Fang posted a cryptic post on Instagram that namedropped local celebrity couple Christopher Lee and Fann Wong: "As transient as a fleeting cloud, quietly, and without a trace. Not every Christopher Lee will have his Fann Wong; not every Fann Wong will stay with her Christopher Lee. Not everyone can be Christopher Lee and Fann Wong. And when everyone thinks that the both of you will be like them, not everyone believes that you'll be the next."
Netizens inferred that Fang was wistfully referring to himself as Lee and Lim as Fann.
5. Entangled in a sexting scandal with actress Carrie Wong
In 2019, leaked private messages between Fang and another Mediacorp colleague, Carrie Wong, were posted online, and the exchange suggested the two had a physical relationship.
The messages were peppered with sexual innuendo, with him joking about "planting strawberries" (slang for love bites) on Wong and sleeping with her.
At that time, Wong was dating Taiwanese model Boris Lin, while Fang was romantically linked to Rebecca Lim. Lin even publicly asked Fang to stop coming between him and Wong.
Fang later went on to make a public apology, where he said: "Carrie and I are good friends who talk about everything. I acknowledge that our language was vulgar and inappropriate. I apologise for our conduct. I am sorry to those who saw the exchanges. As a public figure, I will be much more careful in my behaviour going forward."
Lin and Wong, who is now 32 and reportedly single, eventually broke up. And with Lim moving on with Webster, whom she wed in 2022, it is safe to say both women dodged a bullet.
6. Had a tough childhood in China
Details of Fang's childhood were revealed in the 2015 reality travel series Family Wanders, when he went on a week-long trip to Japan with his mother, Ms Fang Pei Pei.
He is the only child of divorced parents, who were partners in a song-and-dance troupe, but could not get along and split when he was four.
His mother won custody of him, and Fang's father left for Japan. Fang was initially placed under the care of his maternal grandmother, and later a childcare centre, after his grandmother got too old and found him too mischievous. His mother moved to South-east Asia to provide for him, and Fang once shared that he was mostly on his own as a kid.
Sometime between the age of 11 and 16, Fang moved to Singapore and his mother joined him here. He attended Bendemeer Secondary School, and later studied new media at Republic Polytechnic. Upon graduating from the latter in 2012, he became a full-time actor.
On Family Wanders, Ms Fang said: "I've always wanted to say this in Singapore. Thank you, Singapore, for raising my son, Ian. My deepest gratitude (to you)."
7. Pursued other ventures beyond acting
In 2013, Fang established his streetwear brand First Attempt, selling T-shirts, caps, bucket hats, towels, hair wax and utensils. Its Instagram account is still active, although its last post was in May 2023. Fang deleted his personal Instagram account in May 2025, around the time he was sentenced to jail for his crimes.
He also once co-owned the House of Mu restaurant at Mohamed Sultan Road in the late 2010s. In 2020, he opened the karaoke pub Pub-G, but it closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2015, he released his first music single, the Mandarin rap number 1st Attempt (2015). Featuring former Singapore Idol runner-up Sylvester Sim, the track celebrated Fang's brashness and being unapologetically himself.
Fang was later also featured as a rapper on the song King (2020) by Singaporean singer Alfred Sim. The pair gave fans a sneak peak of the electronica number at the Starker Music Carnival 2019 at Zhongshan Park.
In 2020, they also performed it at a TGIF Music Station event at the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre.
After leaving Mediacorp, he became an acting teacher at First Model, a modelling school for children aged between four and 14. It was then that he committed sexual offences against a minor in 2024.
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