Slater Young, 3 years after PBB

Slater Young is one of the few Pinoy Big Brother (PBB) alumni who has successfully managed to parlay his time on the show touted as the “teleserye ng totoong buhay” into a promising showbiz career. Three years after he won Pinoy Big Brother Unlimited, Slater is now an actor, host and endorser.

Slater’s latest gig has brought him full circle. He is one of the three hosts of Ubertime, an online show that complements the afternoon and primetime editions of Pinoy Big Brother’s current season, Pinoy Big Brother All In. Ubertime used to be a late-night show, but it was moved to an earlier timeslot.

“Because before, we would start around 11:30 p.m., which was after a primetime show?” Slater begins when asked to explain why the show is now airing at a different time. “We know that most of the people watching Ubertime and PBB in general, are still young and we don’t want them to miss classes. ‘Di ba may pasok na ngayon? Nung nag-start kasi ang Ubertime wala pang pasok, kaya OK lang na medyo late yung show. Now that classes have resumed, we transferred it to an earlier timeslot so our viewers won’t have to stay up late.”

Slater is joined in the Ubertime panel by Joj and Jai Agpangan, twin sisters from Bacolod who tied for fourth place in Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition 4. The twins are known to be energetic, almost hyper, when hosting, and Slater admits he works hard just to keep up with them. It also took him a while to settle into his new gig.

“At first, I felt the pressure, kasi nga mataas energy nung dalawa so kailangan pantayan ko yung binibigay nila. Then on the first week, I was still a bit uncomfortable because I had a hard time speaking Tagalog. But after a while naman, I got used to the whole thing, so naging OK naman,” he says.

Having lived and worked in Cebu before he joined showbiz, Slater is more used to speaking in Bisaya and English than Tagalog. So when he started getting acting and hosting jobs after winning Pinoy Big Brother Unlimited, he knew he had to do something about that. So he immersed himself in the language.

“Salita lang ako ng salita ng Tagalog. And I encourage my friends na pag nagkamali ako sabihin din nila,” he says. “Practice makes perfect talaga when it comes to my hosting. Even yung mga katrabaho ko sa PBB, sinasabi nila OK lang naman if I speak English but I really want to learn Tagalog. Kaya kahit nabubulol ako, sinasabi ko sa kanila na I want to speak in Tagalog para matuto ako.”

Aside from hosting, he has also ventured into acting. Slater’s latest acting job is in a Cinemalaya film with Coleen Garcia and his fellow Oishi endorser Elmo Magalona. “It’s called #Y, and Elmo plays a suicidal character tapos ako yung kuya niya. It’s directed by Gino Santos. OK naman siya,” Slater says of the experience. “That was my first time to do an indie film. Chill lang yung buong team kasi bata pa kami lahat, so it was a very fun set. It took me four days to do all my scenes, but the whole team yata two weeks.”

Despite his foray into acting, Slater sees himself becoming more of a host in the future. “Masaya naman ang acting but feeling ko lang mas bagay sa akin yung hosting. I’m open to acting, but feeling ko sa hosting talaga ako dapat. Palagi akong nasasabihan na doon ako mas bagay, and I agree with that din naman.”