Vivian Lai

Vivian Lai Yi-ling is a Taiwanese-born Singaporean actress & television host.

Born in Taiwan, Lai migrated to Singapore with her Taiwanese family when she was still a student. She joined Star Search Singapore 1999 and was the winner in the Singapore edition and the overall champion in the female contestants' category.

Lai started out as an actress, making her debut in Knotty Liaisons, and won good reviews. She eventually diversified into hosting and has hosted various kinds of programmes ranging from food reviews to travelogues. In 2012, after numerous nominations, she won her first professional award, the Best Supporting Actress award, at the Star Awards 2012 for her role as a Chinese immigrant in Love Thy Neighbour.

At the Star Awards 2015, Lai received the All-Time Favourite Artiste after winning the Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes award from 2001, 2003-2004, 2007-2014 respectively with Jeanette Aw.

Lai is also the brand ambassador for beverage brand Coca-Cola, 7-Eleven, Mannings, NSK and Osim.

Lai is married to Alain Ong and the couple have two daughters, Vera and Ariel. Alain Ong is the CEO of Pokka International and Deputy Group CEO of Pokka Corporation which Lai has been brand ambassador for multiple years from around 2008. This has thus attracted its fair share of controversy, amid allegations of conflict of interest which in 2012, she was paid S$1 million to continue endorsing the brand. On 15 February 2017, Ong became a non-executive director of Kimly, a coffee shop chain operator, for which he is a nephew of its lead independent director Ter Kim Cheu.

In September 2018, her husband Ong was suspended from his posts by Pokka Corporation following an internal audit and would later take up a new appointment offered by Kimly, while Lai's contract as an ambassador was terminated in the following month, despite claims by Mediacorp that her contract would remain unchanged.

Ong left Kimly in January 2019 due to the ongoing investigation. In August 2019, Ong was sued by the Pokka Group for alleging being part of a conspiracy which had caused the company to suffer a loss of S$10 million.