Nicholas Teo has changed since my first meeting with him one and a half years ago. It was at the launch of his debut Mandarin album 1st Choice. Wearing a butterfly print shirt, he appeared so endearingly bashful and slightly overwhelmed by the media attention. 

Meeting him recently at the gala premiere of The 3rd Generation, his debut feature film, the awkward lad has been replaced by a self-assured young man. At the press conference, he fielded questions with ease and spoke in Cantonese, a dialect he picked up after moving to Kuala Lumpur two years ago from his hometown Kuching, Sarawak, and even revealed a rarely seen cheeky side of him.