Max Loong is a Swiss actor, host and producer of Chinese descent. Swiss entertainment magazine Schweizer Illustrierte ranked him as one of the top 100 most important and influential Swiss personalities in 2007. In the same year, Elle Magazine Singapore awarded him the ‘Breakout Star of the year’ award. Among some of his most recognisable works, he has been the host of MusicStar, the Swiss equivalent of American Idol, and also filled a role as the lead character of Singapore’s Emmy nominated comedy First Class.
Life
Max was born in Malaysia to a Swiss mother and a Chinese-Malaysian father. His father was a race car driver in the 1970s, and his mother worked for Christie's auction house in Zurich. His grandmother, Rosemarie Volz was an Opera singer in Switzerland in the 1940s and 1950s. When he was three, Max moved to Switzerland. Shortly after graduating Kantonsschule Hottingen with a degree in economics in 2000, he got in contact with VIVA Schweiz, at this time Switzerland's top ranking music channel. This was eventually where he landed his first on-screen job as a TV host. In 2004 he trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in Los Angeles, where he discovered his passion for acting. His fellow students and teachers cast him in independent movies such as The Intervention or Syndicate:Zeed. Max resided in the United States until he relocated to Singapore in 2006. He relocated in part to rediscover his Asian roots, and to be closer to his family in Malaysia. As an MTV VJ and an actor, he went on to become a popular television personality in South East Asia.
TV career
At the age of 20, he beat more than 400 other competitors to become the host for the first Swiss music channel,. This was his first foray into hosting. Shows he has hosted in Europe include Fanta Fiesta, McMusic, FreaX, Popschau, Sunrise and his own produced hit show Interaktiv where he has interviewed famous artistes such as Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Usher, 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, Robert Downey Jr. and Pierce Brosnan to name a few. Traveling and trying things at least once was a philosophy well rewarded when he landed a job in Asia in 2006 as MTV Southeast Asia’s new VJ. He hosted the award-winning multimedia show "MTV Mobbed" which was broadcast all over the Asia Pacific Region. He also kept his other interests alive during his tenure by hosting Gamepad, Pop 10, Pop Inc. and red carpet coverage of the MTV Asia Awards 2006 in Bangkok. In 2007, Max was chosen as the host, which is the Swiss equivalent of American Idol. In 2008 and 2009, Max Loong also hosted reality- and entertainment shows such as the S-Factor and Mitsubishi Challenge. He has also been involved in numerous productions for one of South-East Asias largest networks Mediacorp Singapore. In 2009, he signed on for the 4th season of MusicStar in Switzerland.
Film career
In 2003 he has acted in leading roles on the big screen in Swiss movies such as in “Piff Paff Puff”, a movie about gangsters with different racial backgrounds, playing the role of a drug addict. While in, a film about the high society party scene of Zurich, being a DJ, and in his controversial hit movie, a movie about violent kids locked up in a Swiss youth jail, he took up the role as a rapist, playing his most challenging character so far. He also had a television drama series named after him, Adventure Max. He appeared in the first two seasons of the French television seriesDeja Vu and other television shows. Loong landed a starring role in the Asian dramedy series After Hours, which ran for 13 episodes. He starred in Singapore’s Emmy nominated number 1 comedy series First Class as a young teacher at a dysfunctional school and the 2010 drama “Perfect Deception”.
