Sylvia Chan, the former CEO of once-popular YouTube channel Night Owl Cinematics, was accused in 2021 of being a toxic and abusive boss, lost brand deals with Colgate and MILO, apologised publicly, and later revealed she endured a 12-month police investigation before reinventing herself as a life coach.
The saga began on October 7, 2021, when Chan was accused by the anonymous Instagram account @sgcickenrice of verbally abusing employees and fostering a toxic workplace culture, with one talent named Samantha allegedly singled out with an “exit strategy” requested by Chan. Leaked audio recordings circulating online captured Chan using slurs, including saying “that b*tch is f*cking dumb” when talking about Samantha, and asking for help to formulate the employee’s exit. In response to the allegations, major brands including Colgate and MILO cut their collaborations with Chan; Colgate said it does not tolerate negative behaviours even as allegations were still under investigation, while MILO said its campaign with Chan had ended and it was not working on any projects with her.
NOC initially responded by labelling the allegations a massive smear campaign, touting its efforts to develop employees in a safe space and noting that serious breaches of privacy laws were being investigated. The Instagram account was issued a cease-and-desist letter, to which it responded with its own lawyer’s letter saying the allegations had not been proven untrue. The Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) and the Ministry of Manpower then opened investigations into workplace harassment claims against Chan, with the agencies reminding employers of their legal obligation to keep workplaces safe and pay salaries on time.
On October 13, Chan apologised in a statement, acknowledging that she did not live up to the standards expected of her, and removed herself from NOC’s line-up of artistes. The apology did little to quell the storm: Samantha Tan, whose alleged mistreatment ignited the saga, pointed out inaccuracies in Chan’s statement, and the saga dragged on for weeks, encompassing the breakdown of Chan’s marriage with Ryan Tan, her ex-husband and NOC co-founder. The couple, who founded NOC in 2013 after a failed restaurant venture and shot to fame with videos like “Shit Singaporean Girlfriends Say,” had finalised their divorce in March 2020 after three years of separation.
Years later, Chan revealed that the public cancellation was only the beginning. In a 2024 episode of her podcast Dirty Mess Free, she disclosed that she had been the subject of a 12-month criminal investigation, saying she never imagined going to a police station to defend that she was not a criminal. She said an entire floor of the police station was working on her cases, with over a hundred open cases against her at one point, covering allegations including embezzlement and prostitution. The investigations eventually died down, and Chan joined global creator company Gushcloud International as regional head of media strategy before announcing she was training to become a life coach.
The NOC saga remains the biggest influencer scandal in Singapore’s history, a cautionary tale about power, workplace culture and crisis management in the creator economy. Podcast retrospectives, including one by The Straits Times’ pop-culture show, have dissected Chan’s missteps — from the counter-productive first statements to a much-criticised two-hour interview with influencer Xiaxue — and concluded that in the end, the brands, the talents and the audiences all moved on, while Chan was left to rebuild from scratch.