Neo wrote and acted in a comedy skit for
Tanjong Katong Secondary School at the age of 14. Neo started his career on television in 1980 and became one of the most successful and recognisable celebrities in
SBC for his comedic roles on both film and television. His two most notable cross-dressing roles on film and television are Liang Po Po and Liang Xi Mei, both skits in the long-running comedy variety show
Comedy Nite. Neo made his directorial debut in
That One No Enough (1999) and he set up his own artiste management company, J Team Productions, whose members include comedians
Mark Lee and
Henry Thia, where the trio worked together in
Comedy Nite and also in movies such as
Money No Enough,
That One No Enough,
Money No Enough 2,
Where Got Ghost?,
The King of Musang King and
Money No Enough 3. Neo's films
satirise several aspects about Singapore in comical ways, including
societal issues such as negligent parenting and
school corporal punishment, and foreign issues such as the
water disputes between Singapore and Malaysia. Apart from his film and TV career, Neo has also recorded and produced a number of albums. Neo received the Best Director Award at
Singapore International Film Festival's
Silver Screen Awards in 1998 for his short film,
Replacement Killers, which led to him filming
Hitman in the City in the same year as an extension of the original short film. Since then, he became a filmmaker and created his first film,
Money No Enough, directed by Tay Teck Lock and released into cinemas on 7 May 1998. The following year Neo was awarded with
Mediacorp's Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his contributions to Singapore's media industry. In 2004, Neo became the first filmmaker in Singapore to be honoured with the
Public Service Medal. He also received the
Cultural Medallion on 21 October 2005 together with musician
Dick Lee. In 2008, Neo and Mark Lee bought the Singapore master franchise rights for
Old Town White Coffee, a coffee retail concept from
Ipoh, Malaysia. Their first store at
Big Splash opened on 30 March in that year. In 2013, Neo announced the creation of
J Team Academy, an educational institute which aimed to bring together industry experts to groom new film-making talent. The academy opened on 6 April 2013. In September, Neo won the Best Actor award for his role in
Homecoming (2011) at the 1st Golden Wau Awards, aimed at promoting Chinese-language Malaysian films. In October 2014, the
Madame Tussauds Singapore museum unveiled a wax figure of Neo. 2015 saw the release of Neo's short film as part of the omnibus
7 Letters to commemorate Singapore's 50th year of independence. Malaysian censors took offence with Neo's segment when it was submitted to them for a screening at Kuala Lumpur's Titian Budaya Festival. They initially requested a cut to the vulgar phrase in Cantonese, "curse your whole family", but a successful appeal was made by organisers CultureLink. Neo released the first two parts of his planned four-part film on the transition from village life to government housing in the first quarter of 2016,
Long Long Time Ago and
Long Long Time Ago 2. In 2026, Neo received the Singapore Film Society's Lifetime Achievement Award. ==Personal life ==