It’s easy to see why Lim Kay Siu was cast as Monk Gyatso in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Netflix’s live-action remake of the iconic animation series. Both Lim and Gyatso—mentor and friend to the main character, Aang—share a youthful energy, mixed with insight and wisdom from long years of experience.

The series gave the sixty-eight-year-old Singaporean airtime on televisions across the world, but he’s been a familiar face in his home country for much longer. Many Singaporeans know Lim from Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd, a popular sitcom that ran from 1997 to 2007, in which he played Frankie Foo, the lead character’s archnemesis. Over the span of a forty-year career, Lim is also an established and respected presence in the local theatre scene, where he has played roles interrogating power and justice in society. At the time of our interview, he’d just finished a run of Accidental Death of an Activist, a play staged by local theatre company Wild Rice.

• Tags: Calum Stuart, Issue 38, Lim Kay Siu, Singapore