Melai Cantiveros has indeed come a long way since being a housemate of Pinoy Big Brother back in 2009, wherein she was dubbed “Inday Kengkay of GenSan”. Her team-up with now husband Jason Francisco, better known as MelaSon, also began inside Kuya’s house. And while many supported their tandem, it was always Melai’s bubbly personality and genuineness that won over the love of Kapamilyas everywhere.
She has been funny, friendly and simple. And delightfully, she has not changed even a bit after all her successes. As soon as she went back to the outside after being hailed as the Big Winner of the Double Up edition, Melai quickly began her career as an actress and has even made appearances on movies. Her first acting project was the comedy-fantasy series Kokey @ Ako, which was followed by her first-ever starring roles in Precious Hearts Romances Presents stories “Mana Po” and “Impostor”, both aired in 2010. She currently appears in the PIE Channel series The Chosen One: Soap Opera.
Apart from teleseryes, she also appeared in other Kapamilya programs that showcased her skills in performing, such as Your Face Sounds Familiar Season 1, in which she was also the grand winner, as well as in hosting, such as I Dare You (2011-2013) and Magandang Buhay, in which she’s been a host since it began in 2016. Her career had also come full circle after she was tapped to be one of the hosts of PBB for its Otso (2018-2019), Connect (2020-2021), and Kumunity Season 10 (2021-2022) editions.
As for the big screen, the 34-year-old actress-host got cast in several movies, too, with starring roles in “The Adventures of Pureza,” “Queen Of The Riles” (2011) and “Momshies! Ang Soul Mo’y Akin” (2021).
Melai may have become more blooming and gorgeous but she has remained “kengkay” at heart up to this day! She still speaks in her heavy Bisaya accent (which we find amusing and beautiful!), and has never pretended to be someone she is not. She still utters her signature expression “char!”, which translates to “joke”, whenever she injects humor in her conversations with other people. When she posted her then-and-now photo, many of her followers commented that she has always been beautiful – and we could not agree more.
For sure, there is more to come for Momshie Melai. But for now, let us check out this gallery to see how she has grown through the years!
You may also show your love and support for her by not missing an episode of Magandang Buhay, weekdays on Kapamilya Channel, Kapamilya Online Live, A2Z, iWantTFC.