Jennylyn Mercado

Jennylyn Anne Pineda Mercado-Ho was born 15 May 1987  in Paranaque, Metro Manila. She is a Filipina actress, singer, and songwriter. Mercado was the winner of the first season of the reality talent competition StarSTuck. Mercado garnered acclaim at a young age for her acting performances on television and film. She starred in multiple commercially successful films, including English Only, Please (2014), Walang Forever (2015), and Just the 3 of us (2016). With GMA Records and Viva Records, Mercado has released three albums, which have several popular singles such as “Sa Aking Panaginip”, “Moments Of Love” in collaboration with Janno Gibbs, “Basta’t Nandito Ka”, and “Kahit Sandali”. In 2017, Mercado top billed the Philippine remake of My love from the star. Mercado’s success in Philippine cinema has made her one of the top actresses in the country and established her status as the “Ultimate Star”.

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Jennylyn spent her senior year of high school at the Augustinian Abbey School in Las Pinas. As a child, Mercado suffered physical abuse from her stepfather. Her biological mother returned from Dubai merely to bail her stepfather out. Henceforth, Mercado was raised by her aunt, whom she considers as her mother. Mercado is the niece of ABS-CBN’s news reporter Abner Mercado. She has three cousins, Cherie Mercado is a news and radio anchor for CNN Philippines, and sisters Charee Pineda and Eliza Pineda both work under the same network. 

Mercado started as a recording artist with Alpha Records in 1999 through the recommendation of her voice coach, Susanna Pichay. Mercado was in Nonoy Tan’s singing group, G4. The group recorded two songs but never released an album due to two of the four members dropping out. After G4, Mercado went into commercial modeling, landing a stint with Bambini cologne and a Pond’s TV advertisement. She was also part of the Elite Circle of “10 Modeling Search”, where she competed with StarStruck co-finalist, Dion Ignacio. In 2002, Mercado made her debut acting appearance playing a minor role in ABS-CBN’s TV series Kay Tagal Kang Hinintay, which was top-billed by Bea Alonzo and John Lloyd Cruz.

In 2003, Mercado joined the reality show StarStruck. After winning StarStruck, Mercado starred in numerous TV series, including Encantadia, I Luv NY, Super Twins, Paano Ba Ang Mangarap and many others. Mercado released her first album Living the Dream, which contained original compositions by Vehnee Saturno, and a carrier single titled “Kahit Sandali”. In May 2006, Mercado released her second album Letting Go, which included the single “Sa Aking Panaginip” by Vehnee Saturno. Mercado’s first major concert was held at the Music Museum in Greenhills on 15 May 2006. 

Mercado starred in the Filipino period piece called Rosario (2010). Mercado’s singing career was managed by Viva Records. In 2011, her contract with Viva ended and was not renewed, though she joined Cristine Reyes. In 2013, Mercado signed with Regal Entertainment. She also signed with PolyEast Records, hoping to reinvent herself as a singer. Mercado branched out into television hosting, hosting reality series named Protege: The battle for the big break. She was also in the GMA-7 Sunday talk show, Showbiz Central. In 2013, Mercado acted in the romance The Bride and The Lover (2013). Her contract with Polyeast Records ended that year. In 2014, she played the role of a woman with a split personality through Rhodora X.  At the end of 2014, Mercado agreed to participate in the 2014 Metro Manila Film Festival. Her entry, English only, please (2014). In the film, Mercado played the role of Tere Madlansacay, a Filipino tutor. The film’s success established her as a movie star. In early 2015, Mercado received the MMFF Best Actress award for the recently concluded film festival. 

In 2015, Mercado was first in the DHM “Philippines’ 100 Sexiest Women” list. On 11 July, Mercado participated in the two-part FHM 100 Sexiest party at the SMX Convention Center in the SM mall of Asia. Mercado played the lead role of Melanie Fernandez-Dela Paz in the GMA series My faithful husband. Despite its success, the series was not extended due to scheduling conflicts with Mercado, who at the time was acting in two films, The prenup and Walang Forever. After the commercial success of WalangForever, Mercado earned her second consecutive MMFF Best Actress award in 2015. Through social media, Mercado announced her upcoming project, confirming that she was acting in a new film with actor John Lloyd Cruz. The film, titled Just the 3 of us. It earned 16 million pesos in its opening day, which was the highest opening day gross of any of Mercado’s movies and set a record for the highest opening day gross for a Philippine film. It went on to be one of the highest-grossing Philippine films of 2016. After months of negotiations, Mercado and the GMA Network renewed their contract on 4 July 2016. As part of the contract, Mercado hosted GMA’s new comedy-singing show Superstar Duets. Later Jennylyn was chosen to play the role of Steffi for the Philippine remake of the South Korean series My love from the star. In October 2018, Mercado became the first Filipina brand ambassador for international makeup brand Max Factor.

Jennylyn Mercado is also active on various social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.  The YouTube channel, Jennylyn Mercado, was created back on May 15, 2019. On this platform, Mercado posts singing videos, travel videos and many interesting content. For now, her channel has over 1 million subscribers, there are 43 uploaded videos and more than 48.8 million total number of views. The Instagram account is called mercadojenny, the audience of this platform exceeds 3.5 million followers. As for Twitter, Jenny joined Twitter in July 2012. Her channel is Jennylyn Mercado and has over 438K followers. The Facebook account is Jennylyn Mercado with over 13 million followers. 

Jennylyn got married and revealed about it on her Instagram account on November 20, 2021. Her husband is Dennis Trillo, a Filipino actor. His Instagram account is Dennis Trillo, his audience exceeds 683K followers.