Thai Television Soap Opera - Actors and Actresses in Lakorns

Actors and Actresses in Lakorns

Actors and actresses, referred to in Thai language as dara (stars), are usually cast in the same roles over and over again. An actress who plays the lead female would assume the same role.

Suvanant Kongying from still plays the female lead. The same goes for other roles, such as the friend of the main leads, the bad characters, the servant characters, the mother characters, etc. An "upgrade" or "downgrade" does occur, such as when a female lead assumes the role of the mother, but is quite rare. Num Sornram Theppitak still plays the leading male character. Kob Suvanant Kongying and Num Sornram Theppitak were the highest paid lakorn actress and actor in Thailand in the 90's. However in the past 10 ears a new actress has reigned as highest paid in Thailand, Pachrapa Chaichua of Ch. 7 and Ann Thongprasom of Ch. 3.

This trend causes a lot of problems for the daras in the leading roles as they age, especially for actresses. Thai audiences seems to like their leads young and beautiful and many past female daras have disappeared from the screen once they reach the age of 30 or so. A few defy this norm, such as Marsha Wattanapanich, and even then, she is gradually disappearing. Her latest lakorn was 2002's Baung Ban Ja Torn (The Enchanted Bed), which became top rated.

This problem is not as bad for actors, as can be seen in the prolific career of veteran actor Chatchai Plengpanich. His wife, the once famous Sinjai Plengpanich, has all but disappeared, except for the few commercials seen in primetime.

Among the younger crowd are leading actress's such as Kwan Usamanee and Pancake Khemanit who have continued to grab ratings despite their Ongoing Feud Both Kwan and Pancake have come out numerous of times to deny that there is any feuding, but actions prove otherwise. Due to their improper behavior it is rumored that executive's for Ch. 7 such as Khun Daeng has called both girls in to be disciplined. Both Kwan and Pancake although are young have been given high spotlight due to their feuds and their romantic links to other celebrities such as Golf, a famous singer from the duo better known as Golf Mike. Kwan and Golf have both come out to deny that there was anything more serious than friendship, but there were many reports of Kwan crying once she saw Golf with new sweetheart Ploy Chermarn. All have been proven to be false. Pancake has been linked to romantic interests such as leading actor Weir Sukollwat Pra'ek best known from his role in the lakorn Pleng Ruk Rim Farng Korng.