From their lithe frames to their towering heights, high cheekbones, and long, glossy hair, Cheryl Chou and Sheryl Ang could pass off as real sisters. But we think it’s their presence, not resemblance, that commands the attention. It makes sense why they have been cast more than once as family members—once as cousins in the murder- mystery Devil Behind The Gate (2025), and then as sisters in dystopian crime-drama trilogy The Leftovers, slated to air next year.

While the parallels between them are easy to spot—a mutual love for astrology, spirituality, spicy food, and sleeping—their energies quickly diverge. Sheryl is dark, twisty, and self-deprecating—always questioning her existence in this world and turning to ChatGPT for answers. Cheryl, on the other hand, emits a radiance that comes from her sunny disposition. She draws you in with her bright aura and a graciousness that is sincere, not taught.

Cheryl Chou & Sheryl Ang On Acting, Identity & Charting Their Own Paths — Sweater; shirt; skirt, CELINE.

Listening to them banter is like watching Wednesday Addams talk to her chirpy best friend, Enid Sinclair—except both women are keenly aware of the roles they inhabit and when to subvert them. “I honestly didn’t think we would be friends,” admits Sheryl. “At first, I didn’t feel like we would vibe because she seemed a bit distant. She looked cautious and a little guarded, and I picked up on that straight away.” Cheryl defends herself: “Some people say I can come across as closed off, but I see it differently—I’m very straightforward. If I like you, you’ll know. If I don’t, I won’t force it.”

It was acting together in The Leftovers that solidified their relationship. “Cheryl gives me a lot of confidence,” affirms Sheryl. “I’m very dependent on my co-actor’s energy. If the other person isn’t 100 per cent, it’s hard for me to give 100 per cent. But she always gives 110 per cent, and that pushes me to say, ‘yes, I can do this’.” Sheryl looks over to Cheryl and asks, “How have we not hung out yet? We’re supposed to go out for mala hotpot.” To which Cheryl sheepishly replies: “Probably because we’re too busy being at home and sleeping.”

At the cover shoot, dressed in spring/summer 2026 designs, the girls are giving us strong sister energy—the kind where one beams with charisma and positivity like a proud overachiever, while the other is the surly, moodier counterpart who stares intensely into the void. “I can’t do bubbly. Give me an electric guitar, and I’m ready to go,” Sheryl says while dressed in a sharply tailored jacket and black leather pants from Celine.

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They both enjoy and present fashion in their own way. As a former model, Sheryl has gone through every imaginable phase, leaning heavily into a punk aesthetic (think leather, studs, smoky eyes, blackened lips) and streetwear. But these days she’s seeing a more elegant, androgynous style that’s fluid and mood-driven. “It’s very fun to put together an outfit,” she says. “Fashion is all about self-expression.”

Cheryl, a Project Runway addict who studied fashion in university, loves the clean-girl aesthetic, which is minimal and sophisticated. She believes in longevity and sustainability by putting her clothes through their paces. “I have a black jumpsuit that has lasted me 10 years,” she says. “It’s very minimalist, but the way you accessorise it changes everything. It has carried me through so many different events.”

Together, these actresses mirror each other in unexpected ways, but it’s clear that each is navigating her own lane. Both have steadily built bodies of work, clocking long hours on set, and learning the rhythms of the craft from the inside out. They’re not in a hurry to reach the pinnacle of their careers. If anything, it feels like they’re waiting for their big break—and this might just be the year the stars align.

Ahead, we sit down with each woman to trace those paths and understand the forces that have quietly shaped who they are today.

SHERYL ANG

For someone firmly in her prime, the idea of death occupies Sheryl Ang’s thoughts more often than one might expect. Not in a morbid sense, but as a quiet, recurring line of inquiry. A deep thinker who wears her heart on her sleeve, and a self- professed loner with a strong “I” (introvert, on the Myers-Briggs scale), she describes it as a kind of existential reckoning. “We all live knowing that we’re going to die eventually,” says the 27-year-old. “I keep asking myself: Why are we here? What are we learning? And if we’re learning something, what is it all for? What happens after?”

This feeling intensified after she was nearly hit by a car. She could have died, but in that moment, she braced herself and left it to fate. “I remember thinking: If this is it, then it’s okay. I wasn’t afraid. There was no feeling of needing to hold on,” she says. “Sure, there are milestones I haven’t reached—I’m not married, I don’t own a house—but if I were to die tomorrow, I would feel at peace with that.” Looking back, she admits it’s a good thing. It just means she’s very in the present—not stuck in the past, not anxious about the future, just happy to be in the moment and looking forward to the now.

She half-blames this tendency to overthink on her star sign: A Virgo sun with both rising and moon in Pisces, she sees herself as a study in contrast. “I’m holding two conflicting energies at once,” she explains. “Virgo is rational and logical, while Pisces is deeply emotional and intuitive. Even though my brain knows how to rationalise things, my emotions usually come first. I feel everything before I think it through.”

That same push and pull defines how she moves through life—she’s never been someone with a fixed plan. “I’m very go- with-the-flow,” she states. “For me, the problem with setting rigid goals is that the moment you achieve one, there’s always a what’s next. I prefer to stay open. If something comes along and it feels right, I take it. If it doesn’t, I let it go.”

And you can see this by how she trudges through life haphazardly but happily, falling into a series of happenstances that have led her to where she is today. From doing exceedingly well in drama in secondary school, to pivoting to Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics at polytechnic, there was a sense she was finding her niche. Her résumé is eclectic: Stilt walker, mascot, model, actress, healer. Each role points to a desire to explore, to resist the conventional.

If there is one constant running through all of it, it is her fascination with the inner workings of life itself. “I question a lot,” she admits. “I’m drawn to healing, philosophy, psychology, spirituality. Anything that helps me understand how we think, feel, and exist.” Her first encounter with spirituality came early through a friend’s mother, who practised Reiki. As a young teenager, it was curiosity rather than belief that drew her in. She learnt the basics, adopted a few crystals, and left it at that. It was only during her turbulent late teens that interest really peaked. “It was one of those phases where you’re very affected by everything around you,” she recalls. “I’m highly sensitive, so I tend to take on other people’s burdens and mistake them for my own. Eventually, I hit a kind of rock bottom.”

Spiritual practice returned, this time with intention. Sheryl resumed Reiki, completed Levels Two and Three, and later trained in Sekhm, another form of energetic healing. Along with that, she is well-versed in the holistic benefits of crystals and is always looking to expand her knowledge in other new-age remedies.

Unsurprisingly, she gravitates towards more intense or complex roles with heavier material. In Devil Behind The Gate, her role saw her helping to cover up a murder. This year, we’ll see more of her in Chinese crime drama No Other Way; Chinese fantasy family drama Timeless Memories; and English crime caper Aunty Lee’s Deadly Delights. She is also preparing to shoot a TV series with Ochre Pictures, where she plays a young tarot card reader—a role closely aligned with how she already moves through the world.

When asked whether she sees herself as a heroine, a storyteller, or a disruptor, she answers without hesitation: “A disruptor. I’ll disrupt first, then I’ll tell stories.” And if there’s one stereotype she could break about women in entertainment, it’s “feminine rage” —the portrayal of damsels in distress, or characters defined by passivity. “There’s still this idea that women are docile. I don’t think that’s realistic, and honestly, it’s very outdated,” she says.

In many ways, that belief mirrors how Sheryl moves through life—quietly questioning, deeply feeling, but never a passive passenger. Not waiting to be saved. Not waiting to be told who she is allowed to be. Just present, receptive, and ready to act when it matters.

CHERYL CHOU

There is beauty in imperfection—like Cheryl Chou’s inability to lie or win at rock-paper-scissors, or her forgetfulness, or the way she has freestyled through life, moving from one thing to the next without a concrete plan. The only real plan she has is to stay open. “Everything lies in your destiny,” she quips, her Pisces spirit showing. “If you’re meant to be somewhere, and things are meant to happen for you, it will.”

Very little fazes her, even when her Rat horoscope warns of a difficult year ahead. The only feng shui cure she did was to paint her room blue—to promote creativity. “What I’ve come to realise is that it’s really about perspective,” she reflects. “The challenges you face teach you a lot about life. You can be afraid of the unknown, the difficulties, the roadblocks—but in the end, it’s about what you take away from them.” She speaks with the quiet assurance of someone who has been there, done it for the past decade, seen a lot, and weathered the challenges that came with it.

Like Sheryl, Cheryl has spent much of her life in motion, following whatever current felt right at the time. A nomad by circumstance, the Singapore-born actress grew up in Shanghai and attended an international school where she absorbed different cultures. Fashion was once the plan—she was en route to study fashion marketing in New York—until that path was abruptly rerouted by a call to enter Miss Universe Singapore in 2016. Shortly after, she found herself in show business, carving out a career as an actress and occasional host. She most recently fronted Mediacorp’s Chinese New Year Eve Special 2026 live show.

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Today, Cheryl shares that she is so busy she hardly has time to sleep. “I spent Chinese New Year sleeping for 30 hours over two days,” she says, grinning. Yet sitting across from her, what comes through first isn’t exhaustion, but gratitude. There’s a brightness to her presence—a sense that she is genuinely thankful for where she is, even as she continues to figure out where she’s headed. “I wasn’t a very confident person when I was younger,” she admits, “but being in this industry has helped build resilience and confidence—especially in how I navigate relationships with people.”

She has an old soul, akin to the wisdom of a 70-year-old: She doesn’t take BS, doesn’t believe in sugar-coating, and can’t fake connection. If anything, Cheryl is highly sensing and intuitive. “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become very protective of my space and my energy. I’m open to meeting new people, but I’m also careful about who I let in. I think it’s important to guard your heart.”

Family is what grounds her most. When she speaks about her grandmother, who passed away a few years ago, her voice falters. “She was a very simple woman who loved unconditionally,” Cheryl says quietly. “If there’s anyone I look up to, it’s her. Loving without limitations is such a special skill set. Not everyone can do that.”

That gentleness coexists with a playful side: Before pageants and clean silhouettes, Cheryl used to sport blue and purple hair. She loves fast cars and is an unapologetic Formula One fan. “It’s not about the drivers,” she says, eyes lighting up. “It’s the cars. The sound. You can’t deny how good the McLaren sounded last season. I hope someone invites me to the Singapore race this year.”

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Professionally, she feels she has entered a new chapter. Since signing with Mediacorp three years ago, she has been energised by its shift toward more experimental storytelling. Projects like The Leftovers—a dystopian crime thriller set 20 years into the future—reflect that change, pushing boundaries she’s eager to explore. She will also star opposite Taiwanese actor Jasper Liu in the upcoming crime drama Crisis Man (2026), which approaches investigations through unconventional, almost supernatural means.

When asked about a significant role, she points to Perfectly Imperfect (2025), which she has been nominated for in the Best Actress category at this year’s Star Awards. Playing two vastly different characters—a teacher and a prostitute—in the same series stretched her in new ways. “I wouldn’t call it a breakout role,” she says carefully, “but it definitely made people sit up and notice.”

Having just turned 30, Cheryl is feeling calmer, more at peace with herself, and looking forward to ageing with grace. She is also embracing the idea of being “30, flirty, and thriving”. She adds, “I truly believe women peak later in life—especially after 35. There’s a glow, a confidence, an aura that comes with that phase. It’s incredibly attractive.”

Make-up Artist & Hairstylist for Cheryl Chou YING CUI/AASTRAL Beauty
Make-up Artist & Hairstylist for Sheryl Ang YAN HAN
Photographer’s Assistant MOHD ALIF
Stylist’s Assistant PRIYANKA PATEL