Hi-5 Kathleen de Leon On Maternity Leave
Despite the Australian accent, the looks of obvious Asian ancestry and a Spanish sounding surname made me surmise that the petite member of Hi-5 had Filipino roots, an assumption that was confirmed when during one episode where the Hi-5 members wore different flags, Kathleen donned a costume with the Philippine flag emblazoned on it.
For those unfamiliar with the Hi-5 ensemble, it’s an award winning Australian group formed in 1999 that caters to the children’s market, and has won three consecutive Australian Logie awards in 2002, 2003 and 2004 for “Most Outstanding Children’s Preschool Program.” From Australia, the Hi-5 episodes are now being shown all over the world in more than 50 countries, with an American version that mimics its Australian counterpart.
The success of Kathleen de Leon can be partially attributed to her extensive training in several performing schools, which has led her to being cast as a member of the Australian run of Ms. Saigon and being cast as the understudy of Mimi in the ground breaking musical Rent before finally landing her role in Hi-5.
But for the moment, the most important part that she wants to play is as a mother, which made her decide to take a maternity leave in April, in preparation for the birth of Mikayla in July 2006.
In her absence, Sun Park, a Korean born Sydney based Australian, will take her place until such time Kathleen feels she is ready to go back to work.
Her Filipino fans need not worry though because there are 8 seasons of episodes on the Nickelodeon channel and the currently available Hi-5 DVDs to tide them through Kathleen’s hopefully short absence.
(Update (Source: Wikipedia): In July, 2007, it was announced that de Leon was leaving Hi-5 permanently to focus on raising her child. She also announced that she would be still be interested in working on television if an opportunity existed in Sydney so she could remain close to her family. Kathleen is the first of the four original members to permanently leave Hi-5, the others being Tim Harding, Kellie Hoggart and Charli Delaney.)
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The site is very good!
Congrats!!
YOU’RE COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Im a big Fan
hi nice friend ok…………
HAE I’M A HUGE FAN OF YOURS CONGRATS AGAIN
hey kathleen im a big fan i lovee u lol u r great and congrats on the baby plzz reply. ohh and im 11 and i use to love hi-5 u were my favourite i know ur sis melanie say hi. i am also filipino xoxo loredana
do you know any information about this subject in other languages?
i thank God she’s just on maternity leave.we miss her. we’re proud of her representing our country Philippines. my youngest daughter, 1yr old and 3mos also named mikkaella. my two kids had fun watching hi5 at nickelodeon channel… God bless
Hi Charsy. Please see the update I’ve added because this post was written in October 2006 pa. Thank you.