Admired for his slick and electrifying dance moves in 8TV’s So You Think You Can Dance? and Showdown, Dennis Yin is one who dares to try out different things.
Besides dancing, he has been a radio announcer, TV host and even played small roles in local and Singaporean TV series.
The 32-year-old, who works at radio station Fly FM, is co-hosting ntv7’s lip-syncing challenge, Drop The Beat, every Saturday from 8.30pm to 10pm with comedienne-actress Sherry Alhadad.
“We co-hosted a similar game show called Perang Bibir on TV9 last year. So, Drop The Beat is its new, re-branded season on a different channel,” he said at the launch of ntv7’s new programmes at the T6 Shopping Centre in Sungai Buloh recently.
The 10-episode game show, which began last week, has 24 celebrities competing to be the best mimic in various genres of songs, such as pop, rock, techno and Bollywood.
The winner gets RM50,000, and marks are awarded by a panel of celebrity judges headed by award-winning actress Nabila Huda Suhaimi.
On his duties as host, Yin said he had to make sure contestants obeyed the rules.
“For example, I must always have my ears ‘pricked up’ to catch the celebrity who accidentally belts out bits of his or her given song.
“Once you start to sing, it is ‘potong markah’ (deduction of marks).”
As for his onscreen chemistry with Sherry, Yin said he was not the “serious guy”, who balanced her zany personality.
“It’s fun to partner with Sherry again because she lifts my mood with her jokes.”
Yin’s first Malaysian film comes out at the end of the year.
In it, he flexes his muscle as a tough special forces policeman who busts drug dealers and criminals.
“I had a supporting role in Polis Evo 2, and underwent police training for three months last year.
“I’ve acted for four years now, often playing best friends of the protagonist. The nastiest role I’ve had was as a gangster in Singapore’s police drama Mata Mata in 2015.”
Describing his police training as gruelling but rewarding, he said it made him realise that becoming a good actor required him to shed “blood, sweat and tears”.
“I’m happy that I bore my suffering well — tackling obstacle courses, handling rifles and pistols, scaling walls and wrestling with my fellow ‘officers’.