Vice Ganda is a very known Philippine comedian, actor and TV host and the singer who became known for his longtime work in a TV show named its Showtime. He has also starred in a lot of high-grossing Philippine movies.
He is very popular in the Philippines and he’s known for his open gay endorsement since he is also gay.
Early years
He was born as Jose Marie Borja Viceral on March 31, 1976, in the town named Tando which is located by the capital of the Philippines called Manila.
He gained his nickname Tutoy when he was a young boy and it was before he even disclosed himself is being gay.
He has 4 siblings and is the youngest of them all and he gets along with all of them very well. He was never mocked by his siblings about his sexuality or humor but he sometimes felt like nobody quite understands him.
That is why he had periods of depression in his youth which he tries to overcome even today.
The neighborhood he lived in is named Jose Abude and it is located in Managua in Tando.
He was very young when he lost his father and it made a huge deal for him since he was in a fragile state in that period.
His father was the barangay captain and was murdered. Unfortunately, he was only 15 at that time and witnessed the event.
This made a huge change in the lives of him and his siblings because his mother had to go and work abroad in the position of the caregiver in order to provide her children food and the roof over their heads.
He always felt great respect for his mum because she supported all of her children unconditionally.
Although he was raised in a very harsh environment he went through high school very well and managed to enroll in the studies at the Eastern University where he was a student of political studies.
However, he was a huge fan of singing and comedy and he knew that he was good at it so he decided to pursue his career in those 2 categories.
His career began as a singer and he performed at various events end clubs but he was not satisfied completely with his achievements.
That is why he turned to stand up comedy which was also one of his strengths.
Career development
He began working as a comedian for Andrew de Real’s comedy troupe called The Punchline and the Library. Andrew was the owner and he was the one to create his stage name which he still holds today: Vice Ganda.
This was a huge motivation for him and he spent years practicing his performance and developing his comedy materials while rehearsing it at various comedy clubs doing gigs and entertaining the crowd.
His career grew bigger and stronger when he started to appear on television and begin getting great reviews from various tabloids and magazines for his work.
Vice first appeared in a fantasy TV series which was broadcasted in the Philippines in 2008 in 2009 and was titled Dyosa. This serious was streamed also through YouTube.
One of his 1st experiences in a TV serious was in a romantic drama called Maging Sino Ka Man: Ang Pagbabalik, which was aired in 2007 and unfortunately ended very soon in 2008.
In 2009 Vice became a member of a talent search program called Showtime and he was there on the position of a judge. He still does it today and it made him very famous in his country, although he sometimes outrages other judges.
It was then that he came to peace with his sexuality and started feeling more self-assured.
He was featured in a drama serious titled Maalaala No Kaya which is also called Memories and was very popular in it and liked doing it so much.
After appearing with a lot of minor roles in a few independently made movies like Condo where he starred alongside Coco Martin and in My Life, a drama movie directed by Olivia Lamason where he starred alongside Vilma S. Rector and Jaune L. Cruz.
He was invited to star in a comedy movie titled “Petrang Kabayo” which was made in the fantasy comedy genre and directed by Wenn Deramas. It was his first lead role in a movie and it brought him fame and great reviews.
The movie, however, didn’t get good reviews from the critics but the public liked it very much and it earned a serious amount of money at the box office, way more than it was budgeted.
In 2011 he appeared in a movie called the “Unkabogable Praybeyt Benjamin” which turned out to be a great action spoof comedy movie with Eddie Garcia and Nikki Valdez in the lead roles.
This movie was also a hit end gave Vice more financial security and an opportunity to show his great acting skills.
in 2012 he appeared in a comedy parody movie called This Guy in love with you Mare! where he starred alongside Tony Gonzaga and Louise Manzano.
In 2013 he appeared in the comedy parody movie starring Marisol Soriano and Joey Marquez. The movie received attention and earned over $8,000,000 at the box office. The name of the movie was Girl, Boy, Bakla, Tomboy.
He won the Philippine Movie Star award as the movie actor of the year in 2014 and also the award for the best actor at the 39th Metro Manila film festival.
The Amazing Praybeyt Benjamin was his following comedy movie directed by Wenn V. Deramas and is indeed a sequel of the Unkabogable. He starred in it alongside Coco Martin, Nadine Lustre, and James Reid.
The latest role Vice gained was in a comedy film titled Fantastica which was directed by Barry Gonzalez and was released in December of 2018. He starred in it alongside Bela Padilla, Jaclyn Jose, Richard Guiterrez and more.
Vice didn’t receive very good critics for his role in the movie and his humor was characterized as repetitive, especially due to insult jokes which he regularly uses and which a lot of people think are inadequate.
As for his work as a singer and his impact on the Filippino music industry it is known that he released three albums so far. The first one was named Lakas Tama and it was released in the summer of 2011 through Vicor Records.
His second album was released two years later and he named it after himself and released it through Star Records. Both of the albums were certified gold.
In 2014 he has released his last album named #Trending, which also received the gold status.
Vice tried himself also as an author and published his first book under the title President Vice: The New Troublemaker president.
The book is made out as a parody and deals with how the future would look as if he was the Filippino president.2017 brought him a huge financial plus on his account as he launched his own line of cosmetic products called Vice Cosmetics. He made his line affordable and was very happy that women and men recognized his passion for it.
He was involved in a huge controversy in 2013 after he said several jokes about gang rape in his performance and was attacked by Filipino groups for women’s rights. He later apologized in public for this although at first tried to explain the controversy as his way of joking.
In 2014, he became an inductee of Eastwood City Walk Of Fame in the Philippines.
Three years later, in 2017, Yes! magazine listed him as one of the 100 Most Beautiful Stars in the country of the Philippines.
He later appeared in a drama series titled Maalaala Mo Kay, where he discovered the mobbing and persecution in the society when he was younger and discovered to be gay.
Personal life
He was rumored to be dating one of the characters in his show It’s Showtime by the name of Ion Perez. Ion is a comedian who was a model earlier and is also openly gay. They never confirmed nor denied the relationship but they often share emotional photos and words.
Ion is working as a model and has 13 siblings. Not a lot of people also know that Ion has a son of three years from his previous relationship.
In 2019 he confirmed that he was finally in a stable relationship but he didn’t reveal his face or name.
He bought a big house in Manila and has several cars. The most noticeable car he owns is a pink hummer but he also has one more car and it is also colored in a bright color: red.
He is very close to his family, especially his mother. He posts photos on his social media hugging her or the other way around.
He likes to hang out with his sister Tina too. He has a sister Marivic whose daughter Camilla is a huge fan of her uncle Vice.
Vice is very active over social media and has almost nine million followers on his Instagram account and the number is constantly growing.
But he also has a lot of haters, especially the one annoyed by him being openly gay and defending the rights of gay and transgender people.
Vice is very good at basketball and was quite good at it in high school.
Vice often dies his hair and has tried almost all of the red, blue and blonde shades.
He also loves animals and has his dog named Chip In.
Quick summary
Full name: Jose Marie Borja Viceral
Date of birth: March 31, 1976
Birthplace: Tondo, Manuguit, Philippines
Age: 44
Profession: actor, singer, performer
Height: 180 cm
Weight: 69 kg
Net Worth: $12 million