Lea Salonga
Lea Salonga is an actor, born 1971.
Most people have heard her without ever seeing her. Lea Salonga, born Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga in Manila in 1971, is the singing voice of Princess Jasmine in Aladdin in 1992 and of Fa Mulan in Mulan in 1998, and was named a Disney Legend in 2011 for exactly that: two generations of children know her range and would not recognise her face.
The stage is where the career actually lives. Known at home as the Pride of the Philippines, she has headlined Broadway and West End productions, and the clearest proof in this catalogue is a filmed gala where she is billed as Kim and Eponine, the two stage roles she is best known for. Later she appears in the Les Miserables 25th anniversary concert as Fantine, which is a graduation rather than a repeat: the same show, the older woman's part, sung by a performer who first came to it as the young one. She turns up again as a finale guest at the Miss Saigon 25th anniversary.
Recent work has drifted back towards the screen and towards home. She played Elodie Honrada in Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin in 2022, a straight dramatic role. She performed original songs as Celine in KPop Demon Hunters in 2025. In 2026 she voices a Manananggal, a creature out of Philippine folklore, in Forgotten Island. For a performer whose first fame came from being uncredited on screen, that is a satisfying direction of travel.
Movies (11)
- KPop Demon Hunters (2025)
- Mulan (1998)
- Aladdin (1992)
- Mulan II (2004)
- Forgotten Island (2026)
- Les Misérables: 25th Anniversary in Concert (2010)
- Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams (2007)
- Hey, Mr. Producer! The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh (1998)
- Miss Saigon: 25th Anniversary Performance (2016)
- Disney Princess Sing Along Songs, Vol. 3 - Perfectly Princess (2006)
- Les Misérables: The History of the World's Greatest Story (2013)
TV (3)
Where to start with Lea Salonga
Mulan first, and listen rather than watch. Reflection is a difficult piece of writing, sung by a character in the middle of hiding who she is, and the restraint she brings to it is the whole reason the film works emotionally. Aladdin is the earlier job and the more purely pretty singing.
The concert films are where you get her undiluted. Les Misérables: 25th Anniversary in Concert gives you Fantine at full power, and Hey, Mr. Producer! The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh is the archive record of her as Kim and Eponine. Miss Saigon: 25th Anniversary Performance is the sentimental one and earns it.
If you want her acting rather than singing, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin is the place. KPop Demon Hunters is the 2025 surprise, and hearing her voice inside a modern animated pop musical closes a circle that opened in 1992.