Star Magic

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Star Magic, Inc., formerly ABS-CBN Talent Center, is ABS CBN's homebased training and management program. It was designed to assist young talent in the Philippines. It opened in 1992. Star Magic is currently home to some of the Philippines' leading young celebrities - Claudine Barretto, Piolo Pascual, Kristine Hermosa, Diether Ocampo, Bea Alonzo, John Lloyd Cruz, Rica Peralejo, Sam Milby and many others.

Star Magic is headed by television and film director Johnny Manahan.

Star Magic's Star Circle Training Program has launched to date, 13 batches of new stars who have undergone extensive training in acting, personality development and physical enhancement prior to being cast in the television shows of ABS-CBN and the films of Star Cinema, as well as other film projects in the Philippines, commercial projects and corporate events. Star Magic also has an artist registry of actors who fill roles in ABS-CBN shows.

[edit] History

In April 1992, Freddie M. Garcia, then ABS CBN executive vice president and general manager, and Johnny Manahan, then program director, hatched the idea of creating a stable of new stars exclusively for the network. This gave birth to Talent Center.

In its early years, the Talent Center concentrated on star-building through its initial project, "Ang TV," a repertory show intended to develop potential stars and serve as a breeding ground of talents for other ABS CBN projects.

The show auditioned a several thousand people and accepted a few dozen into the program. The success of "Ang TV" led Talent Center to launch subsequent talent searches. The Talent Center continued its search through the launching vehicle Star Circle in 1995 (with 13 successive batches to date).

In 2004, Talent Center began a reality TV talent search called Star Circle Quest, which spawned the Teen and Kid editions in its 1st run, a National Teen Quest on its 2nd season and finally a Summer Kid Quest on its 3rd and latest season. This was also the year when it formally change its name from Talent Center to the incumbent Star Magic.

In 2005, after the successful launch of Pinoy Big Brother, most of the former housemates in the first season and teen edition were signed to Star Magic.

Most of the Pinoy Dream Academy scholars also joined Star Magic after the show ended in 2006.