Photos courtesy of SUN CHASER
By Janet Susan R. Nepales
Andree Camille Bonifacio, more popularly known as AC Bonifacio, is a talented 23-year-old Canadian Filipina who moved to the Philippines to pursue her acting career.
A triple threat who sings, dances and acts, Bonifacio was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is known as the first grand champion of the Filipino TV dance competition “Dance Kids,” which she won with her former dance partner Lucky Ancheta in 2016. The duo was known as “Lucky Aces.”
They performed on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and later with Ariana Grande during the singer’s Vancouver concert. But the acting bug caught Bonifacio when she made her acting debut in “Wansapanataym Presents: The Amazing Ving,” where she played Mika.
Now, the charming and talented dancer-singer-actress is taking on her first animated web series, voicing Zoe Malabanan in “Sun Chaser,” an all-Filipino web series created by Bobby Pontillas and Bernard Badion.
She disclosed, “When I learned about what the project was, who the people involved were, how passionate the team was, and the fact that it’s Filipino and celebrates our culture, I definitely wanted to be in.”
She admitted that she was happy with her first animation experience. “Bobby [Pontillas] was always there to guide me,”she pointed out. “It was so much fun.”
Pontillas, a former Disney animator and Oscar nominee, said of working with Bonifacio, “AC was so much fun to work with. Her excitement and energy are perfect for the character Zoe, who is pretty much down for anything. I can’t wait for a Zoe-focused episode.”
“She originally recorded for the character Sessa, who was Jordan’s younger cousin, and then for Zoe. Apparently, she knocked both auditions out of the park! Ultimately, when Zia Dantes came in as Sessa, Liza [Soberano, who is also a producer] eventually gave AC the role of Zoe, which was the best call,” Pontillas narrated.
“Sun Chaser,” an indie project, is inspired by Philippine culture and mythology. Aside from Bonifacio, it also features Filipino talents including Manny Jacinto as Jordan Santos, a self-absorbed teen visiting his grandmother’s island in the Philippines; Liza Soberano as Angie, a fierce and protective manananggal, and Queen Marisol; Charo Santos as Lola, Jordan’s grandmother; Dingdong Dantes as Necrofrost; Zia Dantes as Sessa; KD Estrada as La Bamba; Eugene Cordero as Archie, an old, grumpy dwarf; and De Guzman as JR.
The project won the Animation du Monde Prize at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, one of the world’s leading animation festivals. It follows a reluctant teen who discovers he is the next Spirit Guardian and sets sail across the Sea of a Million Islands to save his grandmother, uncover the truth behind his missing father and stop a growing darkness from consuming the human and spirit worlds.
Toon City and Playlab animation studios in the Philippines helped Pontillas and Badion create the web series, which premiered on YouTube last June.
In our exclusive interview with Bonifacio, she told us more about her character, Zoe.
She revealed, “I truly fell in love with her because I feel like she’s really me. She’s there to protect the people she loves. She is ‘game na game.’ She will be there wherever the adventure is happening. I even have a poster of her.”
So, was she able to meet her co-actors, we asked.
“Unfortunately, we were all recording on different days because our schedules are super hectic. And Liza and the other Fil-Am actors were recording in the U.S. So, we were really all over the world. But just to be part of the cast with talents like them is truly an honor,” she answered.
Bonifacio, who moved to the Philippines in 2023, shared that she is the only one in her family living in the Philippines. “But my mom goes back and forth to see me,” she pointed out.
She also made her musical theater debut in “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” where she received critical acclaim.
She said, “I fell in love with theater. That’s the first show that I’ve ever done, and it was the most perfect show because I played Marcy there, who’s a perfectionist. She was disciplined and had to be the winner every single time. There was pressure to be number one all the time.”
Bonifacio confessed that her dream is to become an international artist. “I want to be able to perform, sing and dance on the global stage.”
Janet Susan R. Nepales is an award-winning journalist and the first Filipina voting member and Associate of the Golden Globe Awards. She has been a member since 2008 and is the first Filipina to be elected to the Advisory Board. She is the author of the coffee table book “FASHION. Filipino. Hollywood. The World” and the co-author of the first FWN book “DISRUPT: Filipina Women: Proud. Loud. Leading Without A Doubt.” A graduate of UST (AB Journalism, cum laude), she is based in Los Angeles and is a Hollywood entertainment journalist and TV correspondent.
