My friend becomes a knight

Hos­san is awe­some, and he makes things look so easy if you don’t see him pan­ick­ing, try­ing to mem­o­rise scripts because they’ve been given to him at the last minute.

He speaks French so well that if you were stranded on a desert island that was a French colony, you’d want him to be in your tribe.

More impor­tantly, he’s got heart.

Félic­i­ta­tions, Ch. Leong, Hossan.

SINGAPORE: Sin­ga­pore Boy Hos­san Leong has received the pres­ti­gious Cheva­lier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Let­tres (The Order of Arts and Lit­er­a­ture). The dis­tinc­tion hon­ours Hossan’s achieve­ments in the Arts and sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to French cul­ture world­wide – in par­tic­u­lar his involve­ment in cul­tural ties between Sin­ga­pore and France.

The forty-one year old actor/director and radio pre­sen­ter learnt of his Knight­hood when he received a let­ter and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion from France’s Min­is­ter For Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ca­tion, Fred­eric Mit­ter­rand. An offi­cial cer­e­mony to con­fer the title will be held at the Ambas­sador of France to Singapore’s res­i­dence in com­ing weeks.

“It’s a dream come true to be rec­og­nized for some­thing that I’m pas­sion­ate about, French Cul­ture and the Arts,” Leong said.

Hos­san has starred in sev­eral French themed pro­duc­tions with Sing’theatre — includ­ing the company’s trib­ute to Edith Piaf and the recent pro­duc­tion of A Sin­ga­porean In Paris. He rep­re­sented the Sin­ga­pore Actors in Paris at the inau­gural Asian Film Fes­ti­val. In 2006 Hos­san was awarded the Prix des Ambas­sadeurs Fran­coph­o­nes (Fran­coph­one Ambas­sador Award).

Hos­san lived in the South of France dur­ing his twen­ties where he stud­ied French. He has also been actively involved with the French com­mu­nity in Sin­ga­pore host­ing events and teach­ing act­ing classes to the stu­dents at the French School.

Leong is the co founder of the Paul Carr Con­sul­tancy Pte Ltd — a Sin­ga­pore based Enter­tain­ment & Media Train­ing Com­pany and is a pop­u­lar host/stand-up come­dian for cor­po­rate events.