Anne Curtis Filipino Actress Known for Hiram

Early life

Anne Ojales Curtis-Smith was born on 17 February 1985 in the state of Victoria, Australia. Her mother, Carmencita Ojales, is a Filipina of Chinese and Spanish descent from Bolinao, Pangasinan, and her father, James Ernest Curtis-Smith, was an Australian lawyer. Her younger sister, Jasmine, is also an actress.

In 1997, when she was 11, the family visited her mother's relatives in the Philippines. A talent scout approached her there and invited her to enter a children's beauty pageant. Her father was doubtful at first, but with her mother's backing she began exploring work in entertainment, and she visited talent agencies without telling him. The family eventually chose to settle in the Philippines. Curtis did not speak Tagalog at the time and took language classes.

Career

Curtis made her film debut in 1997 in Magic Kingdom: Ang Alamat ng Damortis. She then signed with Viva Films and GMA Network, appeared in the drama series Ikaw na Sana, and joined the youth programme T.G.I.S.. Between 1998 and 2003 she held smaller and supporting parts in films and television shows. In 2004 she moved from GMA Network to ABS-CBN, where her first project was the drama Hiram, and she also became a host and performer on ASAP.

Her breakthrough came in 2005 with the fantasy drama Kampanerang Kuba, which began a working relationship with the director Wenn V. Deramas. In 2006 she co-hosted a season of Star Circle Quest and starred in the romantic drama All About Love and the horror film Wag Kang Lilingon. She played Celine Magsaysay in Maging Sino Ka Man and its 2007 continuation, Maging Sino Ka Man: Ang Pagbabalik, and her work in the series brought her first acting nomination at the PMPC Star Awards for Television. In 2007 she also became a video jockey for MTV Philippines and appeared in Ang Cute Ng Ina Mo and May Minamahal.

In 2008 she starred in When Love Begins and in Baler, an official entry of the Metro Manila Film Festival, which won her the festival's Best Actress award, her first acting prize. That year she also led the fantasy series Dyosa, in which she played four characters. From 2009 she has been one of the hosts of the daytime programme Showtime, later reformatted as the noontime variety show It's Showtime.

Further film roles included In Your Eyes (2010), which earned her the Luna Award for Best Supporting Actress, and No Other Woman (2011), for which she won Best Actress at the FAMAS Awards and the Gawad Pasado Awards. The film briefly held the record as the highest-grossing Filipino film. Her other 2011 projects were Who's That Girl, the television series Green Rose, and her first album, Annebisyosa, issued by Viva Records, which reached platinum status in December that year. She went on to give concert tours in 2012 and 2014, and she released the albums The Forbidden (2014) and Forever Young (2016).

Her later films include A Secret Affair (2012), The Gifted and Blood Ransom (2014), Sid & Aya: Not a Love Story, BuyBust and Aurora (all 2018), and in 2019 Just a Stranger and The Mall, The Merrier!, the last of which earned about 323 million pesos. In 2020 she announced a break from entertainment, and she returned to It's Showtime in 2022. She played in a Philippine adaptation of It's Okay to Not Be Okay in 2025 and appeared in The Loved One in 2026.

Recognition

Curtis has received FAMAS Awards, Metro Manila Film Festival awards, a Luna Award and Box Office Entertainment Awards. She was named Best Female TV Host at the PMPC Star Awards for Television several times for her work on It's Showtime. Her other recognitions include the Gen.T honour in 2016, a place on the Asia's Most Influential Philippines list in 2021 and 2022, and Variety's Asian Star: Up Next award at the Macau Film Festival in 2018. In 2024 a wax figure of her was unveiled at Madame Tussauds in Hong Kong.

Public roles

Curtis became a celebrity advocate for UNICEF Philippines in 2015 and has served as its national ambassador since 2019. She has also written a children's book, Anita, the Duckling Diva (2016), and has launched several business ventures, among them the cosmetics line BLK and the activewear label Recess.

Personal life

Curtis became engaged to Erwan Heussaff in December 2016, and the couple married on 12 November 2017 in Queenstown, New Zealand. Their daughter was born in March 2020.