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S'pore actor Suhaimi Yusof pays tribute to late Lydia Shum, says she encouraged & taught him during 1st acting role
From a cameo appearance to an iconic career.
October 01, 2026, 07:52 PM
Photo from FLY Entertainment and MeWatch via suhaimiyusof_official/Instagram
Singaporean actor and comedian Suhaimi Yusof paid tribute to the late Lydia Shum for her help during his first acting role.
The 57-year-old posted a Living with Lydia clip on Instagram, a Singaporean-Hong Kong sitcom that aired on Channel 5 from 2001 to 2005.
It was Suhaimi's first acting role after he transitioned from being a radio DJ.
Shum, by then, was already an iconic and well-established Hong Kong comedian and actress.
In the caption, Suhaimi shared how he had no prior acting experience before Living With Lydia.
He had not even acted in any Malay-language productions prior, making Living With Lydia his first-ever acting role as well as appearance on Channel 5.
His first appearance on the show was in the second season.
Initially, according to Suhaimi, he was supposed to star in only "two cameo roles".
However, owing to the encouragement and mentorship of Shum, he gradually made his way into full seasons of the show, noting that the "producers, writers and directors trusted my skills."
"And the rest is history," he added.
"LESSON LEARNED:
Go to the people who lift you up & you lift them up higher after that. (Miss you Lydia.)"
In the show, Shum plays Lydia Lum, a Hong Kong restaurateur who is forced to move to Singapore after her dim sum restaurant is hit with a food poisoning scandal.
Suhaimi plays Sulaiman Yusof, with the gag being that Lum mishears his name as the Cantonese-sounding "Soh Lye Mun".
Living With Lydia was a hit with both viewers in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Since then, Suhaimi has taken on several iconic roles in local television and film, such in The Noose and Police & Thief.
This is not the first time Suhaimi has shared fond memories of himself with Shum.
He shared this clip in 2023 of him teaching Shum Malay.
@suhaimiyusof_official "Cincang udang dan bawang" - when the late Lydia Sum learned Malay from Suhaimi Yusof🤪 #tiktokSG #tiktokmalaysia #fyp ♬ original sound - Suhaimi Yusof Official
