TikTok star Fonz enters his teleserye era
When TikTok comedian Aldrich Nartia, better known as Fonz, was announced as a cast member of the afternoon soap “Apoy Sa Dugo,” netizens wasted no time turning the jokes back on him: “Siya na bahala sa plot twists hanggang siya na ang maging bida sa katapusan!” or “Siya ba ang gaganap sa lahat ng roles, including mga hayop at halaman?” and even “May mic din po ba siyang hawak sa scenes?”
A different beast
But then, they might be on to something. Come to think of it, many of his POV skits and iconic characters could well pass as concepts for those quirky and campy melodramas. There’s his viral “Holdstopper” series, where a robber and his victim fall in love in slow-burn romcom fashion; the uppity, nonchalant ghost who acts like she’s better than everyone; and the hilariously relatable travails of the everyday commuter.
While they might get a kick imagining Fonz’s antics on television, the reality is that even the most over-the-top soap operas can’t get that chaotic. In GMA 7’s “Apoy sa Dugo,” Fonz plays only one character named—cue drum roll—Fonzi, the best friend of Angel (Ashley Ortega), one of the leads in a story of half-sister rivalry, obsession, and betrayal.
That doesn’t make things any simpler, though. Television work, he has come to realize, is a completely different beast from online content creation. While he isn’t juggling multiple personas as he does on TikTok, he’s managing other variables that he didn’t know existed when he was just on the outside looking in.
As a Virgo…
Suddenly, he has blocking and cues to remember, cameras to keep track of, and an ensemble of actors to interact with.
“For my TikTok content, I put my phone in front of me, I act, I edit, and then I post. It’s a straightforward process,” he tells Lifestyle Inquirer. “Pero sa taping ang daming kailangang i-multitask. Hindi lang lines mo ang focus mo—dapat alam mo rin ang lines ng ka-eksena mo. May lugar kung saan dapat i-di-deliver ang lines. Dapat alam mo rin kung nasaan ang camera.”
In fact, there was a scene he had to redo several times because he kept drifting out of frame or blocking his co-actors from the camera. “I felt like an amateur that day,” he admits, laughing. “Thankfully, everyone on set was kind to me.”
The biggest adjustment, however, is that working with a full-fledged production crew means surrendering the creative free rein he enjoys as a one-man team. His time isn’t his alone anymore. The only thing he has control over is his acting performance. And as a meticulous Virgo, the idea of leaving everything else to everyone else made him anxious.
He couldn’t even bring himself to watch the show’s trailer at first, and when he finally did, he couldn’t help but nitpick. “I’m a perfectionist, so nakikita ko na kulang ‘yong emotions sa mata ko,” Fonz says. “Sa TikTok, kita mo agad ‘yon, tapos uulitin mo na lang…Ngayon, pati camera angles hindi mo hawak, so second [priority] na lang ang vanity!”
Not a plot twist
Still, acting on television is a challenge he has gladly embraced. After all, unbeknownst to many, his crossover to mainstream didn’t exactly come as a plot twist.
All through his elementary, high school, and college years, Fonz never imagined himself becoming anything else but an actor. He was a bit of a film buff back then, he recalls, and watching the likes of Angelina Jolie in “Girl Interrupted” and Al Pacino in “Dog Day Afternoon” had him thinking: “Ang sarap sigurong umarte nang ganiyan.”
The Fonz you see on TikTok today is the same witty and hilarious Fonz his classmates knew in school. “Aldrich, bagay sa ‘yo mag-commercial,” they would tell him. And he believed them.
Before long, after a tiring commute from Cavite to Makati, he arrived at a commercial audition to find a line of incredibly good-looking hopefuls—“mga Fil-Am. Parang may sampung Enrique Gil sa unahan ko.” He might as well have turned around and left. “Sayang ang pamasahe ko!” he says, laughing.
But he didn’t give up easily. Maybe his approach just needed a little bit of tweaking. He continued trying his luck through the early 2010s, “Pero kahit sa mga pang-kengkoy na commercials, ‘di ako nakukuha!”
No matter how many auditions Fonz attended, he never got past the first screening. It was frustrating, he says, because deep down he knew he had something to offer. “Siyempre, mahuhusgahan ka agad based on how you look,” he says. “I wanted to say na huwag niyo munang isipin kung artistahin ba ako o hindi, kasi feeling ko may ibubuga ako. Just give me a chance.”
Now, they’re knocking
That chance never came, and for a while, he resigned himself to the thought that showbiz “isn’t my place.” And then TikTok came along.
At first, he made videos for the sheer joy of it. Little did he expect that his silly little skits about the inanities of life would open a door he hadn’t even gotten so much as a peek at. Nearly six years after he uploaded his first video on TikTok, Fonz remains one of the platform’s most popular content creators with 1.5 million followers and 121.2 million likes.
Now, it’s showbiz’s turn to knock on his door.
“Naging comfortable ako at medyo nawala ‘yong desire na mag-artista kasi nakikilala na rin ako through my content… Sabi ko sa inyo kaya ko, eh!” says Fonz, who was also invited to audition for “Pinoy Big Brother” a few seasons back.
Last year, he received an offer to join the Barbie Forteza drama series “Beauty Empire,” but he didn’t push through due to scheduling conflicts. This time, with “Apoy sa Dugo,” he made sure not to miss the opportunity. “I told myself that by the end of 2025 or early 20206, makapag-TV na ako.” And he has.
Getting the hang of things
Slowly but surely, Fonz is getting the hang of things. He’s even starting to enjoy the notoriously long waiting times on set—“medyo nauga ang mundo ko noong una”—by bonding with and learning from the rest of the cast. And should his performance in this series pave the way for more, he would be grateful to keep following this path.
If not, that’s okay, too. He still loves his work, he says, and feels blessed that brands continue to collaborate with him. Besides, the lines between showbiz and social media are pretty much gone. Actors are content creators, and content creators are now actors.
But no matter which side you start at, it always pays to do what you love. Don’t even think about virality or being discovered. The goal will come into sight before you know it.
“Just create content for yourself. If you feel proud and happy about what you posted, then that’s enough,” he says. “Somebody else will appreciate your work, and then tuloy-tuloy na ‘yon. That’s how I started. Noong una, pinapatawa ko lang ang sarili ko. I didn’t think it would be my vehicle toward success.”
