Raymart Santiago

Raymond Martin (Raymart) Santiago (born July 20, 1976 in Manila, Philippines) is a Filipino action star and comedian. --- He comes from a prominent Philippine showbiz family—the Santiagos. His father is the late director Pablo Santiago Sr. He is the youngest among the Santiago siblings. He and two of his elder brothers are also known in their respective fields in show business—them being Randy Gerard (or Randy Santiago) who is a singer/actor/host and Rowell who is a director/actor. Their other brother is Reilly Pablo Jr., who was married to another local actress Sherilyn Reyes and also tried his hand at film production. Raymart started testing the showbiz waters in 1989 when he was introduced in Viva Films' youth-comedy flick "Estudyante Blues" (Student Woes). Among his contemporaries at that time were Gelli de Belen, Keempee de Leon, Dingdong Avanzado and Vina Morales. After "Estudyante Blues", Raymart became Viva's contract star and started to become visible before the public. While some of his fellow Viva contract stars were given regular TV shows aside from movies at that time (most of them were on "That's Entertainment"), Raymart opted not to overexpose himself and instead only did TV guestings. He also started to concentrate on his studies until he finished high school in La Salle Greenhills while doing movies on the side. In the movies he appeared, he was mostly paired with Gelli de Belen. Raymart endeared himself to the public early in his career with his comic timing, which was at par with some veteran comedians he worked with. Among the comedy movies he appeared in were "Wooly Booly: Classmate kong Alien", "Wooly Booly 2: Ang Titser kong Alien" and "Paikot-ikot". Not long after, Viva launched him as a junior comedian in the movie "Rocky en Rolly" where he shared top-billing with Jimmy Santos. The movie was a success, and he was given a follow-up movie entitled "Tootsie Wootsie", where he worked with Herbert Bautista and Keempee de Leon. However, destiny had other plans for Raymart as action director Deo Fajardo, Jr., who discovered Robin Padilla, took a gamble on him and was repackaged as an action star in 1991. Soon after, Raymart was launched in his first action flick, "Angelito San Miguel: Batang City Jail". The movie was both a critical and commercial success. Soon after, Raymart became an in-demand junior action star. Among his memorable movies were "Magnong Rehas", "Pita: Terror ng Kalookan", "Noel Juico, Batang Kriminal", and "Dillinger ng Dose Pares". Raymart sustained his popularity as an action star for almost a decade, until Philippine movies started to decline. His last major movie as an action star was Sgt. Santos: Batang Sundalo in 2001. --- In 1998, Raymart signed up as a contract star for GMA Network who gave him his first action-sitcom, "Kool Ka Lang" (Be Cool). The sitcom was initially directed by his brother Randy who gave it up after signing up as lead host of ABS-CBN noontime show "Magandang Tanghali Bayan". But "Kool Ka Lang" lived on as Raymart and his gang led by Joey Marquez was able to make a mark among Philippine viewers. The sitcom became a hot Tuesday viewing habit from the time it was aired from 1998-2003. When "Kool Ka Lang" signed off, Raymart teamed up again with Joey Marquez, Richard Gomez and Benjie Paras in "Lagot Ka Isusumbong Kita". Unlike in "Kool Ka Lang" where the action star image was still stuck with him, "Lagot Ka" presented a different side of Raymart who explored more with his comedic abilities. --- He married actress Claudine Barretto on March 27, 2006 in Tagaytay Highlands in Tagaytay City,Cavite. Their wedding was attended by ABS-CBN and GMA Network executives, their families (except Gretchen Barretto, who at the time of the wedding was estranged with Claudine), their showbiz and non-showbiz friends. Claudine gave birth to their son on July 19, 2007. Rodrigo Santino joins big sister Sabina Natasha (b 2004), whom they adopted at 2 months old in July 2004. Both Claudine and Raymart are Born-again Christians who attend the Victory Christian Fellowship. Raymart's wife Claudine Barreto joined GMA in 2010. Presently, both Raymart & Claudine are both Kapuso contract stars.