Richie Koh Nominated For Best Actor At Golden Horse Awards; Is 2nd S'porean Actor To Receive Nod For Drag Role In The Same Category

Mediacorp actor Richie Koh has been nominated for Best Leading Actor at the Golden Horse Awards for his role as a drag queen in new Singapore film A Good Child.

In the movie, the 32-year-old star plays a drag queen who attempts to reconstruct the memory of his dementia-stricken mum (Hong Huifang), making her believe that he is her daughter instead of her son.

Richie will be up against Hong Kong actor Will Or (A Foggy Tale) as well as Taiwanese actors Joseph Chang (Deep Quiet Room), Chang Chen (Lucky Lu) and Lan Weihua (Family Matters) in the category. 

Meanwhile, A Good Child 's make-up artist Dollei Seah and costume designer Shahreens will also be competing under the Best Make-up and Costume Design category. 

The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony in Taipei on November 22.

Richie is the fourth star in Singapore to receive a Best Leading Actor/Actress nomination at the Golden Horse Awards.

The first was Gurmit Singh for Just Follow Law in 2007, then Mark Lee, who was nominated in 2020 coincidentally also for his role as a drag queen in local comedy Number 1, followed by Hong Huifang for her titular role in 2022 comedy Ajoomma.

The Star Awards 2023 Best Actor was on the set of upcoming Mediacorp drama The Grind when he received the good news.

Richie appeared dumb-founded when he heard his name being called out during the Golden Horse nominee announcement ceremony, as captured by his co-star Chantalle Ng on Instagram.

The Your World In Mine breakout star could only react by smiling and staring at Chantalle, who was squealing with joy with the rest of the cast. 

When 8days.sg reached out to the actor, he declined to share in detail how he felt about his chances of winning. 

His manager conveyed that he is "very happy" about his first nomination and that he didn't expect the film to be seen outside Singapore. 

Richie would also "like to attend the ceremony definitely if his schedule permits".

However, he declined to go into more detail as he is “not comfortable with the [other] questions”, including whether he will be going with his partner, who was revealed to be local actress Hayley Woo in 2024, or if he got tips from Huifang regarding the awards show. 

P/S: Gurmit, Mark and Huifang were accompanied by their respective spouses — Melissa Wong, Catherine Ng and local actor Zheng Geping — at the ceremonies previously.

When asked if he thinks actors in Singapore have to play drag queens to snag Golden Horse nominations like him and Mark, the actor similarly declined to respond.

As for whether Richie will be walking the red carpet in drag... the answer is "won't be lah".

You'll just have to catch him in A Good Child, which opens in cinemas on October 9, to see him in his full drag getup then.