It’s only taken a few years, but Nic Chien has become one of theater’s most promising new players.

The rising actor has never been too far away from the spotlight. In 2017, Chien made his professional debut with Atlantic Theatrical’s production of Matilda, where he played one of the titular telekinetic’s young classmates. After choosing to focus on his studies, Chien returned onstage in 2025 with Theatre Group Asia’s Into the Woods, where he stepped into the role of Jack, the absent-minded beanstalk climber. The production also marked the first time Chien shared a musical stage with his mother, Lea Salonga, whose name has become synonymous with thespian royalty. The award-winning actress is best known for her time onstage in productions such as Miss Saigon and Les Misérables, as well as her singing voice in Disney’s Aladdin and Mulan.

“He’s really independent,” Salonga said about her son in an interview with The Philippine Star. “Hindi ko na siya pinapakialaman with regards to who Jack is and his characterization.”

More recently, however, the 20-year-old made national headlines for his performance as Moritz Stiefel in The Sandbox Collective’s staging of Spring Awakening. Part alt-rock musical and part coming-of-age drama, the production saw Chien belting out rock ballads while diving deep into themes of sexuality, mortality, and existential dread. The Tony Award-winning musical has always had a reputation for not shying away from raunchier topics (Chien’s big number, “The Bitch of Living,” is a thinly veiled metaphor for masturbation), but the actor made it a point to challenge his audience as much as possible. 

“[I’m excited about] bringing awareness to things that happen here, that are relevant, but that people don’t want to talk about,” Chien told Rolling Stone Philippines earlier this March when Spring Awakening’s shows were in full swing. “I just think about shocking [the audience] and hopefully changing their minds.”

Nic Chien On Bringing Authenticity Onstage

Beyond the shock value, though, Chien also brought a level of gravitas to his character. Moritz’s storyline is one of the darker ones of Spring Awakening — nervous, sexually repressed, and hyperstressed, Moritz isn’t the easiest character to tackle. There are themes of pressure, sexual confusion, and mental health that surround Moritz, but Chien faced them head-on by finding his own personal connection to the character. 

“I relate a lot to Moritz,” Chien said in an interview with Manila Bulletin. “[In] high school, I don’t think I was very popular, and I saw myself as kind of weird. I’m actually excited for the other kids who were… really weird and misunderstood in school, and who, overall, were just growing up relating to him.” Critics lauded his performance as both “tortured” and “fractured,” praising him for adding an ample amount of vulnerability to his character’s tragic arc.

But this commitment to the craft makes sense for Chien. Talk to the actor, and you can see just how much thought he’s put into his time onstage. “Live theater is harder [than film or television] because you don’t get a second chance when people are watching,” he tells me. “Everything’s moving from moment to moment. You can’t redo something that you’ve already done onstage.”

The Challenges of Being Under the Spotlight

When I speak to Chien, it is months after Spring Awakening and the seemingly endless stream of interviews and press appearances that came with it. “I have recently become a very busy person,” he says. “Before [Spring Awakening], the only thing I really had was school. But I didn’t like school — I was always playing video games instead of doing homework.”

For the young actor, it felt as if many of the questions given to him focused on either two topics: his mother or his experience as a trans man. “[Interviewers] are always like, ‘So how did you find out that you were transgender?’” Chien tells me jokingly. “And I’m so tired. [But]… honestly I’m more tired of people asking me about my mom. Because of who she is, it feels like people are like, ‘Oh man, you have nothing else to talk about. You’re so connected to your mom.’ But I’m also like, ‘Man, of course, she’s my mom!’ She’s an icon! It would be hard if I wasn’t connected to my mom.”

Despite these hang-ups, however, Chien recognizes that it’s part of the price to pay for being able to build a career in the performing arts. “I’m busy doing things I’m good at doing,” he says. “Stuff that supports the arts, the entertainment industry. At least I can look at myself and be like, ‘You know what? I’m busy doing the things that I wish I was doing in high school.’”

If it were up to Chien, he’d spend our interview talking about video games. At present, he’s playing a lot of Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, and contemplating starting Hades II (“But I have to finish the first one,” he says). He, in equal parts, loves The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Minecraft, and has also been watching multiple playthroughs of Doki Doki Literature Club! and Resident Evil Requiem (if it isn’t clear by now, Chien contains multitudes). But we spend a good twenty minutes discussing the highs and lows of trying to best the indie deck-builder, Inscryption.

“When I got it, I played it all the way through for two days straight,” he says. “After school, that was the only thing I was doing during COVID. As soon as I got out of classes, boom, Inscryption.” Chien has yet to finish Kaycee’s Mod, the game’s official expansion, but his mother, who is also an avid gamer, has sped through the game without him.

What’s Next for Nic Chien?

Later this September, Chien will head to Ithaca in New York to start his freshman year of college. For the actor, it will be a welcome break from the time he’s spent in the limelight.

But that doesn’t mean that he’s stopped thinking about his craft. If given the chance, he’d immediately say yes to a production like Heathers: The Musical (“I want to be J.D.,” says Chien) or Maybe Happy Ending, where he’d love to test out his musical skills as Oliver (“Vocally, he’s harder to crack than people think.”).

And above all else, Chien can’t help but focus on the tight-knit community that he’s found during his time onstage. “It’s a family,” he says. “And that has its shortcomings too, because it can make it harder for people to break into the scene. Which isn’t the best, but I understand. But at the end of the day, it’s all very teamwork-oriented. You need each other. I want the audience, many of whom won’t have a second chance to watch the show, to have a good time.”

Frequently Asked Questions