Kim Chiu

Kimberly Sue Yap Chiu (Tagalog pronunciation: [tʃʊ]; born April 19, 1990) is a Filipino actress and singer. Known for her performances in a range of genres across film and television, she rose to fame after winning the first teen edition of Pinoy Big Brother. Chiu's films have grossed over ₱1.36 billion at the box-office, making her one of the highest grossing box office stars of all time. Forbes Asia named her one of Asia Pacific's most influential Filipino personalities in 2020.
Dubbed as the "Multimedia Idol" by various media outlets, she initially began playing supporting roles in several television shows early in her career. Her breakthrough came following her pairing with Gerald Anderson and has appeared together in a number of projects, most notable being Sana Maulit Muli (2007), I've Fallen for You (2007) and Tayong Dalawa (2009). The following year, Chiu topped Yes! Magazine's list of 100 Most Beautiful Stars and ventured more dramatic and comedic roles. It was succeeded by a string of commercially successful projects such as The Healing (2012), Bride for Rent (2014), Etiquette for Mistresses (2015) and One Great Love (2018) in films, as well as Minsan Lang Kita Iibigin (2011), My Binondo Girl (2011), Ina, Kapatid, Anak (2012), Ikaw Lamang (2014), Love Thy Woman (2020), Linlang (2023) and What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim (2024) in television.
Chiu has received numerous accolades for her work in film and television, including a Seoul International Drama Award, a FAMAS Award, eight Star Awards for Television, and eleven Box Office Entertainment Awards. As a recording artist, all of her studio albums have been certified Gold or more by the Philippine Association of the Record Industry. She was picked by Disney Southeast Asia to model as Mulan in a special 2015 calendar shoot. In 2010, she was inducted into the Eastwood City Walk of Fame for her contributions to Philippine entertainment. Chiu is currently one of the main host of the noontime variety show It's Showtime and is a regular performer in the musical-variety show ASAP since 2006.
Kimberly Sue Yap Chiu was born on April 19, 1990. She is the fourth of five children to William Chiu, a Chinese Filipino businessman from Mindoro and Louella (née Yap; 1963–2013), a Philippine Sangley native who migrated from Dinagat Islands to Surigao del Sur, Philippines. She is fluent in Cebuano, Tagalog, and English, with her Waray, Hokkien, and Mandarin Chinese at a beginner level only.
Since her parents' separation in 1998, Kim had a dysfunctional relationship with both of her parents. She and her siblings Lakam, Twinkle, William, and John Paul were raised by their paternal grandmother and, as children, frequently moved residences in the Visayas; including in Tacloban, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, Mindoro and back to Cebu City until 2006. In 2013, she reconciled with her father "after five years of estrangement" while visiting his second partner and half-siblings in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro. A month later in June, her biological mother, Louella, fell into a coma. Following a week of hospitalization, Louella died on June 23, 2013, due to brain aneurysm. In a eulogy dedicated to her mother, she debunked rumors of animosity over her mother's child abandonment and expressed: "An angel guides me in my decisions in life. For me, that is finally my mom."
Chiu gained prominence when she won the top prize in the reality series Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Edition. For the show, Chiu left her hometown of Cebu City and moved to Manila. She, along with the rest of the housemates entered the Big Brother house on April 23, 2006. After 42 days in the Big Brother house, she was named the Teen Big Winner with 626,562 votes (41.4% of the total votes) at the Aliw Theatre inside the Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex in Pasay. She was the only housemate who was never nominated for eviction.
After winning, Chiu became part of Star Magic. She and her on-screen partner Gerald Anderson became regulars in ASAP XV and appeared together in several ABS-CBN shows Love Spell, comedy sitcom Aalog-Alog and in the film First Day High.
In 2007, Chiu starred in the primetime TV series entitled Sana Maulit Muli alongside Anderson which was released to significant acclaim. That year, she was nominated and eventually won the 38th Guillermo Mendoza Box Office Awards as Most Promising Female Star and Best New Female TV Personality (for Sana Maulit Muli) at the 21st PMPC Star Awards. Sana Maulit Muli was later released in Taiwan under the PTS network, under the title Chances.
Chiu then launched her debut album "Gwa Ai Di" (Hokkien simplified Chinese: 我爱你; traditional Chinese: 我愛你; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Góa ài dí; lit. 'I Love You') under Star Records, which included the single Crazy Love. It reached a Gold Record status.
Gaining much recognition for her acting roles, she then starred in the movie I've Fallen For You under Star Cinema and continually appeared in numerous advertisements. In 2008, Chiu was cast in the Philippine adaptation of the South Korean TV series My Girl.
In 2009, Chiu secured her name as a top actress in the highly acclaimed TV series entitled Tayong Dalawa. She garnered several acting awards for her portrayal of Audrey, a woman who is loved by two soldiers.
Her movie I Love You, Goodbye became part of Star Cinema's official entry to the 2009 Metro Manila Film Festival. It was Chiu's first role as a villain and her first film to hit P100 million mark, with her receiving several nominations under different award-giving bodies including PMPC, 12th Gawad PASADO Awards and the 34th MMFF for Best Supporting Actress.
In 2010, she then starred in the romance film Paano Na Kaya, released nationally and internationally. She also starred in the well-received primetime drama, Kung Tayo'y Magkakalayo, the highest rating teleserye of 2010 in the Philippines. In October 2010, Chiu and Anderson teamed up for the last consecutive time in the film Till My Heartaches End. In the midst of movie promotions, it was reported that the long-time couple (known as Kimerald) had split, yet the reason for the breakup was not discussed.
She top-billed in a weekly musical anthology series Your Song, as a sub-series for the 12th season called Your Song Presents: Kim. It ran for four months and led her to pair up with Sam Milby, Jake Cuenca, Pokwang, Derek Ramsay, Enrique Gil and Vice Ganda. In 2011, Chiu starred in the romantic-comedy television series My Binondo Girl alongside Xian Lim, Matteo Guidicelli, and Jolo Revilla.
In 2012, Chiu starred in a horror film with Vilma Santos entitled The Healing. She played a woman who is cured of glomerulonephritis through a healer but must suffer a curse. From this film, she received a number of Best Supporting Actress nominations from almost all of the film award-giving bodies, missing only the Gawad Urian and The Young Critics' Circle.
Chiu also returned to melodrama acting via Ina, Kapatid, Anak, alongside Xian Lim, Maja Salvador and Enchong Dee. After the teleserye ended with an average TV rating of 30.3% via Kantar Media/TNS, it was awarded Best Teleserye of the Year at Philippine's 2013 Yahoo Awards and was aired internationally as Her Mother's Daughter, released in foreign territories including MIPTV in France and at DISCOP West Asia in Turkey. Her portrayal also earned her an award for Best TV Drama Actress. She reunited in a movie with Anderson titled 24/7 in Love, Star Magic's ensemble film in view of the agency's 20th anniversary.
She starred in a film adaption of Ramon Bautista's novel co-starring Xian Lim, Bakit Hindi Ka Crush Ng Crush Mo?, released on July 17, 2013. Her performance received positive feedback and critics praise in view of her first comedic role on the big screen.
In January 2014, Chiu cemented her commercial draw with the romantic-comedy movie entitled Bride for Rent. Chiu plays Rocky, a poor woman who agrees to marry for money. As Star Cinema's first movie offering of 2014, the film met both critical and commercial success, earning more than P21.2 million pesos in its opening day and broke the P200 million pesos mark on its 8th day. The film established Chiu as one of the country's biggest stars having both a successful film and television career. Having grossed P325 million, it is the sixth highest grossing Filipino film of all time, the second highest grossing Filipino romantic comedy movie of all-time, third highest grossing non-MMFF film of all-time and also the highest-grossing January-released film of all time in the country.
After the success of her two films, Chiu returned to television in the 2014 period drama, Ikaw Lamang. The series co-stars Coco Martin, Julia Montes, Jake Cuenca and KC Concepcion and dealt with social class, politics, and forbidden love. It held the first and second place viewer rating in its time slot and was awarded Best Primetime Drama Series at the 28th PMPC Star Awards for Television. This followed with the romantic comedy film, Past Tense and a portrayal as Mulan for Walt Disney Asia's 12 Days of Princess campaign.
In 2015, she appeared as one of five mistresses (alongside veterans Kris Aquino, Claudine Barretto, Iza Calzado) in the high-profile film, Etiquette for Mistresses. She recorded the Cebuano songs "Duyog" and "Labyu Langga" for the film's soundtrack. She also top-billed in the rom-com, All You Need Is Pag-Ibig, which is Star Cinema's official entry to the 2015 MMFF.
In 2016, she starred on the hit romantic drama The Story of Us. Her performance as Tin Manalo gave her another Best Actress Awards from 6th EdukCircle Awards, 6th OFW Parangal Awards and Guillermo Mendoza. Also, on the last quarter of 2016, Kimerald loveteam was announced to set back on television via a triathlon soap opera television series Ikaw Lang ang Iibigin for the celebration of their 10th anniversary in show business.
In May 2017, Ikaw Lang ang Iibigin premiered on ABS-CBN's PrimeTanghali noontime block replacing Langit Lupa. The show debuted at Number 1 in its time slot, and consistently ranked ahead of its competition during its nine-month run.
In November 2017, she appears in the horror movie The Ghost Bride, which was also her first solo outing as an actress. She plays the role of Mayen Lim who is the main protagonist, her character is torn between living a normal though difficult life or accepting a strange business proposal called the Ghost Wedding in exchange for wealth and a comfortable life for her loved ones. She is also accompanied by Matteo Guidicelli, Alice Dixson, Christian Bables and Cacai Bautista in this said movie project which was set to show on theatres on All Saints' Day. The movie became a critical and commercial success garnering over P100m, making Kim a certified horror Queen and The Horror Princess of Philippine movies.
In April 2018, she appears in the Filipino horror-comedy film Da One That Ghost Away directed by Tony Y. Reyes together with Ryan Bang, Enzo Pineda and the duo of Maymay Entrata and Edward Barber. The movie grossed over P8 million on its opening day and over P70 million in its entire theatrical run.
In December 2018, her movie One Great Love became Regal Film's official entry to the 2018 Metro Manila Film Festival. It was Chiu's first time Venturing into an adult, steamy oriented role and also working with both Dennis Trillo and JC de Vera. She received nomination on the 44th annual MMFF Awards for Best Actress. She also won the Film Actress of the Year in the 50th GMMSF Box-Office Entertainment Awards for her performance in the film One Great Love. The movie garnered over P50 million in its MMFF theatrical run.
In 2020, her song "Bawal Lumabas (The Classroom Song)" became the most disliked song in WISH 107.5's YouTube Channel having reportedly received 404k dislikes and 78k likes within 14 hours. The song was based from a viral edit made by DJ Squammy from her statement about the ABS-CBN franchise renewal controversy. In 2023, Chiu had leading roles in two drama series, Fit Check and Linlang, both released on Amazon Prime Video.
In 2024, Chiu played the titular character in the Philippine adaptation of What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim opposite Paulo Avelino, which is released on Viu. She earned a Best Actress nomination for the series at the 2024 Asian Television Awards. She was named as the 2025 calendar girl for the liquor brand Tanduay.
Chiu dated former onscreen partner and fellow PBB housemate Gerald Anderson from 2006 to 2010.
She previously had a relationship with leading man, Xian Lim since 2012. After more than ten years being together, the couple separated in 2023.
On March 4, 2020, Chiu was traveling along Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City on her way to a taping of her series Love Thy Woman when two unidentified gunmen, riding-in-tandem on a motorcycle, fired six gunshots at her van. Chiu and her companions were unharmed. Investigators examine the shooting as a possible case of mistaken identity. Chiu later revealed on social media that, a day after the incident, a person claiming to have been the actual target called one of her bosses to apologize.
As one of Philippines highest paid endorsers, Chiu addressed the ongoing Pork Barrel tax scandal and the government's alleged misuse of the PDAF in a press conference on August 28, 2013, noting the amount of tax celebrities like herself pay to the government: "The money isn't a joke [...] we pay so much tax and we don't know where it's going." The Bureau of Internal Revenue confirmed Chiu as 131st top taxpayer in the country with ₱9.3M in income taxes in 2013.
In 2015, Chiu passed the UPCAT and enrolled in University of the Philippines's UPOU program for business courses.
Chiu uses her media influence to promote various causes. She began partnership with GlaxoSmithKline for its yearly asthma awareness campaigns, Win Against Asthma, after battling asthma as a child. Chiu has since participated in disaster relief organizations such as Philippine National Red Cross and Sagip Kapamilya. She joined the PETA campaign "Free Mali" along with Xian Lim. Chiu made a video plea for Mali, asking that she be moved to a sanctuary for the sake of her well-being. In August 2012, she and Lim spearheaded a relief operation in Marikina. Chiu was heavily involved with relief efforts for Typhoon Yolanda via the Red Cross, which had affected parts of her hometown. Aside from giving food and water, she also held week-long clothes auctions to raise money for Typhoon victims.
By 2013, it was also revealed that the actress was involved with regularly funding Isla Pulo, an impoverished community of 1,000 inhabitants in Manila Bay, Philippines.
In October 2022, Chiu launched her bag business, House of Little Bunny Philippines. It's an online shop selling handbags of which Kim is known for.
In middle of 2023, it was revealed in one of Kim's endorsement media conference that the actress owned a commercial building in Cagayan de Oro.