KOLA Zhou got as far as to the Top 12 of Star Search Grand Final 2007.

But she didn’t leave quietly. She bawled and made a fuss on how maligned she was by the media and other contestants.

Fast forward to today, and guess who’s having the last laugh?

Uh huh, it’s Kola, not the other two female contestants who managed to scrape to the Top 6.

One has returned to Taiwan while the other, Koh Yah Hwee, has supporting roles in Channel 8 dramas.

While some thought Kola was just another pretty wannabe with an attitude problem, she returned to Singapore with offers from MediaCorp.

This 24-year-old Shanghainese was recently caught in a love triangle between Joshua Ang and Dai Yangtian in Channel 8 drama Table of Glory.

Now, she’s been offered the third leading role in the channel’s anniversary drama Together, opposite Jeanette Aw, Yangtian and Elvin Ng.

Kola plays a smart but sickly lawyer, and a close friend to Jeanette’s character. She also has a crush on Yangtian’s character but does not dare to make her feelings known.

Goes to show that yesterday’s reject can become tomorrow’s rising star.

This meaty role is good news for a newbie who only had a handful of dramas under her belt.

But you know what the best part is? She lives with hottie–of-the-moment, Yangtian.

The two, and Malaysian actor Zhang Yaodong, each rent a room in a three-storey house in Bukit Timah.

Kola said she doesn’t get to see Yangtian and Yaodong because of their different schedules, but she could still be the most envied (or hated) woman on the Hill now.

Kola said she’s a different girl from two years back when some Star Search female contestants gave her the evil eye.

She told me: “I was fresh out of university when I joined Star Search and was very raw. I was very straightforward – I still am – and wouldn’t stop at telling someone that I don’t like them. And if I didn’t like something, I’d ask for it to be changed. I was probably self-centred then.”

After the elimination, she said she returned to Shanghai and hid at home for a month.

She confessed: “I didn’t want to come out. I’ve never experienced any setbacks in my life and I didn’t expect myself to be booted out so soon.

“I contemplated about what I did right and wrong during the competition, and how some things could have been done better. I realised I shouldn’t have cried but I didn’t know how to hide my feelings.”

Matured

After working as a journalist for a Chinese men’s lifestyle magazine and doing some advertisements for half a year, she said she has matured and learnt to ask others for their opinions.

She also doesn’t tell people off because it would be too direct and disrespectful to the other person.

One thing we noticed during the interview is that she aimed to please and spoke her mind, although appearing politically correct sometimes. Occasionally, she would place her hand on my arm to stress her point.

She didn’t want to talk too much about the unhappy episode during the competition, and maintained that everyone is still friends.

She doesn’t think she’s gone one-up on the rest of the female contestants.

“The road in life is still long. A lot of things will happen. Maybe they’ll all have better advancement,” she added tactfully.

Meanwhile, she already has some netizens rooting for her in the MediaCorp forum, with one even saying: “I believe she can act well in Together because she has potential.”

This article was first published in The New Paper