EURASIAN COMMUNITY -

Asha Gill- Her looks puzzled Me!
By Emma Patten

When I first arrived in Singapore, I flipped through some magazines from both Singapore and Malaysia. I saw an article on Asha Gill, and I noticed Asha's last name "Gill", was an Indian surname. I looked her up on the web, and I learnt that Asha was the host for Singapore's primetime show, "The Weakest Link." Asha is a popular and familiar face in South-East Asian TV, she was born in the UK to a Punjabi Father, and Caucasion Mother. Asha first got her job in showbiz when she join the Asian music channel [V]. More info on her is provided by The Straght Times Asia.

Asha at 22, was discovered at a bar and whipped off to her first commercial modelling job for Lipton Tea. Her VJ stint came about when she went for an audition in Kuala Lumpur in 1997. Channel V was then looking for a replacement for one of its star VJs, Trey. The next four years were spent in Hongkong, hosting her own show, Asha Meets, which saw her having tete-a-tetes with celebrities like Moby and Britney Spears. Along the way, she earned some accolades for her acting in the English TV series City Of The Rich and an English-Malay movie, Mimpi Moon. The past year has also been a bumper season for her. She was voted one of the Top 100 Sexiest Women in the Malaysian edition of FHM, and named a L'Oreal spokesmodel. She also appeared on a Time magazine cover, alongside Thai singer Tata Young and Hongkong model Maggie Q, in a feature which charted the rise of Eurasians as the new poster children. When asked whether she was hired for her looks -- she is after all the youngest and best-looking of all the other Weakest Link hosts -- she replies: 'I think it's because I can keep a stern straight face.

Asha Anand Gill
Punjabi/English