Biography
Yao, also credited as Thomas Pang, is a Malaysian-Filipino actor based in the United States. Born Thomas Pang in Australia in 1989 or 1990, he holds Malaysian citizenship and trained at the Lasalle College of the Arts (University of the Arts Singapore), graduating in 2015, before earning an MFA in acting from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University in 2023.
He first gained prominence in Singapore’s theatre and film scene, receiving three Best Actor nominations at the Straits Times Life Theatre Awards and winning the award in 2018 for his performance in Hand to God at the Singapore Repertory Theatre. His screen credits include Tiong Bahru Social Club (2020) and #LookAtMe (2022), the latter earning him Best Performance at the New York Asian Film Festival.
Yao is best known for playing Bo Chow in Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (2025). He is based in Brooklyn, New York.
