Kiatkamol Lata (Thai: เกียรติกมล ล่าทา) (aka. TuiThai: ตุ้ย ) (born on May 7, 1983) is a Thai singer and actor. He first gained notice by winning Thailand's True VisionsAcademy Fantasia Season 3, a famous American Idol-like reality show in Thailand. Due to the popularity of the show, people usually called the contestants' names followed by the term "AF"; as a result, Kiatkamol also became known as "Tui AF" (Thai: ตุ้ย AF) or "Tui AF3" (Thai: ตุ้ย AF3).
Biography
Kiatkamol Lata was born in Bangkok, Thailand to a family as an only child. He graduated from Rajamangala University of Technology Phra Nakhon with a bachelor's degree of Business Administration (Majoring in Finance).
After graduation, he worked at Thai Health Promotion Foundation, where he was part of the team to promote an "anti drink-drive" campaign – he worked there for three months, then decided to audition for Academy Fantasia Season 3.
Academy Fantasia
In 2006, Kiatkamol auditioned for Academy Fantasia Season 3 and became one of the final 12 contestants to participate in the show. His run on Academy Fantasia was considered one of the most successful runs in the history of Thailand's Academy Fantasia, as he was one of the three persons who has never been at the bottom three (the others were Jeen AF1 and Good AF5) from 72 contestants of Season1-5. Kiatkamol is also considered one of the most successful artists from reality contests in Thailand.[1]
Surprise of the Season
Thailand's Academy Fantasia has always been famous for creating surprises for their fans. Surprise of Season 3 occurred on Week No. 6 when the host, Toi-Settha, announced that Kiatkamol was to leave the show. As Kiatkamol was one of the frontrunners of the season, this so-called elimination shocked the whole audience. However, Toi-Settha then revealed that Kiatkamol was to leave the show for a few days only and that was because he won the highest number of votes of the week. Kiatkamol was rewarded with a trip to Hong Kong with his mother, and to visit Hong Kong's major TV station, TVB where he participated in a promotional event with Ron Ng Cheuk Hei, a Hong Kong actor and singer.
Music career
After his successful run on Academy Fantasia, Kiatkamol released his first single "Aok Huk Mai Wa" – a pop dance song, which was on many music charts during its release. Half a year later, Kiatkamol released his solo album, Tui : A Rock On Earth, where he went back to his favorite genre, pop rock. From this album Kiatkamol was nominated and won some artist polls and awards. Popular songs from this album included, Takieng Kub Tawan, an ending theme song for Kiatkamol's lakorn debut "Phoo Kong Yod Rak", and Hai Krai Ma Rak Noi, which won Popular Songs of the Year 2007 from Virgin Hitz Award 2007.
Vocal Cord Surgery
In 2008, before Jo Jo San AF the Musical began, Kiatkamol was diagnosed with a cyst on his vocal cord. Kiatkamol said that his voice often got hoarse after performances and as time went by his voice hardly came back to normal. He waited until the run of the play was over to have it removed on September 17, 2008 and was forbidden to speak for one month.[2]
Acting career
In addition to singing, Kiatkamol has also acted in many productions. His first TV series, Phoo Kong Yod Rak, in which he paired up with Diana Chung, won the most popular TV-series from KomChadLuek Award#5.
[3] After the success of Phoo Kong Yod Rak, Kiatkamol also participated in AF's first musical production "Ngern Ngern Ngern", which he garnered a good review from Bangkok Post on his singing – calling his rendition of Classical love songs with his partner in the show both arresting and transporting.[4]
Kiatkamol's first participation with Channel 3 was "Tueng Rai Kor Rak" in which he co-starred with Paul Pattarapol and Namfon Patcharin. He signed lakorn contract with Channel 3 and started having more lakorns with the channel. In 2008, he starred opposite Ploy-Chermarn Boonyasak in "Botan Gleeb Sud Tai" and had to take some lessons of Chinese Opera for the role.[5] In 2009, Kiatkamol was back to work with Namfon Patcharin again in Look Sao Kam Nan, a musical lakorn where he played a new deputy trying to win the heart of a tomboy daughter of the mayor.
Handle Me With Care
In 2008, Kiatkamol was chosen by the producer, Jira Maligool[6]
to be in Kongdej Jaturanrasamee's Handle Me With Care (aka. Kod) and to co-star with Kratae – Supaksorn Chaimongkol. Kiatkamol played Kwan, a three-armed man in search of his meaning of life. Kiatkamol gave an interview that this was a very challenging role for him and Kongdej had helped him a lot in understanding the role. As the filming progressed, he began to get comfortable with having two left arms and thought it looked special. By the time the filming ended, he became so engrossed with the role that when his "extra" arm was taken out, he felt something was missing.[7]
"Handle Me With Care" has been nominated for Best Foreign Film, The Arri-Zeiss Award at 26th Filmfest Munchen 2008 in Germany; and for Best Picture, in International Competition at 2nd Chungmuro International Film Festival 2008 in Korea. It won the Mental Health Media Award 2008 from Department of Mental Health, Ministry of Public Health of Thailand.
