Julie Woon

Model with new role

WITH a portfolio filled with countless photo shoots, fashion shows and products launches, Julie Woon has easily seen the ins and outs of the industry.

A model since she was 18, Julie knows the circuit well and her list of assignments included HSBC, Sony, Skol, Total Image, Maxis, 1Utama and also a lingerie catalogue.

With a charming persona and the gift of the gab, moving into the entertainment scene seemed the next logical step.

The 25-year-old is now one of the lead characters of 8TV’s newest series – Blogger Boy – that airs every Thursday at 9.30pm.

Juli with pink background

Julie plays a character called Nina, a free-spirited and spunky individual, whose good friend Budi (played by co-star Qushairi Razali) secretly pines for her.

“While modelling has been good, I need something new and different to grow into,” says the 165cm tall Petaling Jaya girl.

“In acting, I am looking for different types of characters to play,” adding that she is now trying her hand at script writing in various genres such as dramas and comedies.

“The story is based on the life of a rock star I know but some portions have been dramatised. It is still in the rewrite stage,” says Julie who is a commerce graduate from the Curtin University of Technology.

Much earlier in 2006, Julie was already a television host for Astro’s SuperSport programme, Absolute Football.

The following year, she hosted Astro’s Star World’s Championship Gaming Series.

Currently, Julie is also one of the hosts for ntv7’s Motorsports@Petronas, a motorsports TV programme that covers all types of motorsports that the national oil company is involved in, among them Formula 1, A1GP, MotoGP, Formula Nippon and Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race.

This is her second year co-hosting Motorsports@Petronas – aired every Friday at midnight.

“I loved hosting this programme as it has enabled me to cover assignments in Japan, Russia and Switzerland.

“Usually girls and cars go hand in hand from the modelling perspective but hosting this programme is very different. It has actually forced me to learn about the cars and motorsports."

Luckily for her, the shooting schedules for Blogger Boy and Motorsports@Petronas did not clash.

Julie’s first car was a seventh-generation Honda Accord 2.0, which she bought in 2003 with the help of her parents. Now, she goes around in the latest eighth-generation Honda Accord 2.4 VTi-L which she got last year.

She says it was her parents who influenced her choice as the Accord has good resale value, affordable maintenance, good fuel economy and spacious interior.

“Some people said the (new) Accord is too big for me but I beg to differ. I actually feel much safer in a big car.

“It’s also very executive-looking, which I like a lot,” she says. Her dream car is the Bentley Continental GT, a car that she says is elegantly sexy and in a class of its own.

By the way, Julie’s real surname is Hoi.

“Julie Woon is more of a stage name. I have even thought of using the pronunciation of Hoi in a different Chinese dialect but finally decided on using Woon, my mother’s maiden name,” she explains.