Raymart Santiago

Raymond Martin (Raymart) Legaspi Santiago (born July 20, 1973 in Manila, Philippines) is a Filipino action star and comedian.

Personal life

He comes from a prominent Philippine showbiz family—the Santiagos. His father is the late director Pablo Santiago Sr. He is the youngest among the Santiago siblings. He and two of his elder brothers are also known in their respective fields in show business—them being Randy Gerard (or Randy Santiago) who is a singer/actor/host and Rowell who is a director/actor. Their other brother is Reilly Pablo Jr., who was married to another local actress Sherilyn Reyes and also tried his hand at film production.

He married actress Claudine Barretto on March 27, 2006 in Tagaytay Highlands in Tagaytay City, Cavite. Their wedding was attended by ABS-CBN and GMA Network executives, their families (except Gretchen Barretto, who at the time of the wedding was estranged with Claudine), their showbiz and non-showbiz friends. Claudine gave birth to their son on July 19, 2007. Rodrigo Santino ^[1] joins big sister Sabina Natasha(b 2004), whom they adopted at 2 months old in July 2004.^[2]

Santiago's wife Claudine Barreto joined GMA in 2010 for Claudine's exclusive GMA contract. She left the network on 2012 after GMA executives decided not to renew her contract.

Showbiz Initiation

Santiago started testing the showbiz waters in 1989 when he was introduced in Viva Films' youth-comedy flick Estudyante Blues (Student Woes). Among his contemporaries at that time were Gelli de Belen, Keempee de Leon, Dingdong Avanzado and Vina Morales. After Estudyante Blues, Santiago became Viva's contract star and started to become visible before the public. While some of his fellow Viva contract stars were given regular TV shows aside from movies at that time (most of them were on That's Entertainment), Santiago opted not to overexpose himself and instead only did TV guestings. He also started to concentrate on his studies until he finished high school in La Salle Greenhills while doing movies on the side. In the movies he appeared, he was mostly paired with Gelli de Belen.

From junior comedian to action prince

Santiago endeared himself to the public early in his career with his comic timing, which was at par with some veteran comedians he worked with. Among the comedy movies he appeared in were Wooly Booly: Classmate kong Alien, Wooly Booly 2: Ang Titser kong Alien and Paikot-ikot. Not long after, Viva launched him as a junior comedian in the movie Rocky en Rolly where he shared top-billing with Jimmy Santos. The movie was a success, and he was given a follow-up movie entitled Tootsie Wootsie, where he worked with Herbert Bautista and Keempee de Leon. However, destiny had other plans for Santiago as action director Deo Fajardo, Jr., who discovered Robin Padilla, took a gamble on him and was repackaged as an action star in 1991. Soon after, Santiago was launched in his first action flick, Angelito San Miguel: Batang City Jail. The movie was both a critical and commercial success. Soon after, Santiago became an in-demand junior action star. Among his memorable movies were Magnong Rehas, Pita: Terror ng Kalookan, Noel Juico, Batang Kriminal, and Dillinger ng Dose Pares. Santiago sustained his popularity as an action star for almost a decade, until Philippine movies started to decline. His last major movie as an action star was Sgt. Santos: Batang Sundalo in 2001.

The TV comedian

In 1998, Santiago signed up as a contract star for GMA Network who gave him his first action-sitcom, Kool Ka Lang (Be Cool). The sitcom was initially directed by his brother Randy who gave it up after signing up as lead host of ABS-CBN noontime show Magandang Tanghali Bayan. But Kool Ka Lang lived on as Santiago and his gang led by Joey Marquez was able to make a mark among Philippine viewers. The sitcom became a hot Tuesday viewing habit from the time it was aired from 1998-2003. When Kool Ka Lang signed off, Santiago teamed up again with Joey Marquez, Richard Gomez and Benjie Paras in Lagot Ka Isusumbong Kita. Unlike in Kool Ka Lang where the action star image was still stuck with him, Lagot Ka presented a different side of Santiago who explored more with his comedic abilities.

Santiago recently starred in his third sitcom with GMA, Who's Your Daddy Now? where he essayed a father role for the first time opposite newcomer Alynna Asistio. The show ran for only 13 episodes (a minimum timeframe for a Philippine TV show). Despite the axing of the sitcom, Santiago has been signed up to do a primetime TV series opposite Dennis Trillo and Marky Cielo. The series will be entitled Pulis Pangkalawakan. He was previously offered a role in the hit Philippine drama Bakekang, but turned down the role.

From 2008 to 2009, he starred in the action-fantaserye Gagambino which was aired on GMA 7 with Benjie Paras, Jennica Garcia, Katrina Halili and Dennis Trillo.

In 2009, Santiago was recently seen in Darna aired on Channel 7 where he plays a news photographer.

In 2010, Santiago returned to drama via Claudine, a weekly drama mini series of GMA 7 which together with his real wife, Claudine Baretto-Santiago. His wife's first GMA show.

In 2016, Raymart returns to comedy again via Tsuperhero, marks his return to sitcom in a decade.

Controversy

On July 13, 2007, Santiago and his wife Claudine Barretto, admitted they did not know that Francswiss Investment—which accepted their money—was involved in a pyramid scam. Their lawyer, Ellen Veza, told NBI agents that the Barrettos had invested in Francswiss, but declined to say if they recruited other investors. Francswiss duped Filipinos of almost P1 billion.^[3]

Film and television shows

Movies

TV specials

References

External links

• Raymart Santiago at iGMA.tv
• Raymart Santiago at the Internet Movie Database