Broadway icon Lea Salonga and Academy Award-winning actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie are set to join the roster of speakers at the 2026 ASEAN Inclusive Growth Summit in Manila on November 11.
The gathering will bring together prominent figures from business, government, civil society, and other sectors to discuss opportunities for economic development and inclusive growth across Southeast Asia.
Lea Salonga is among the featured personalities at the summit, joining Hollywood actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie, beauty queen and entrepreneur Kylie Verzosa, fashion designer Rajo Laurel, and Department of Trade and Industry Secretary Cristina Roque, among other speakers.
Recognised for her contributions to theatre and the performing arts, Lea has built an international career that has helped put Filipino talent in the global spotlight. She rose to international prominence for playing Kim in the musical Miss Saigon, a performance that earned her a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1991. She has since starred in numerous stage productions, including Les Misérables, Allegiance, and Once on This Island.
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Lea is also familiar to Disney fans as the singing voice of Princess Jasmine in Aladdin and Fa Mulan in Mulan and Mulan II.
This year, she made history as the first Filipino to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her recognition was the 2,855th star on the landmark, under the Live Performance category.
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Beyond her stage and screen accomplishments, Lea continues to advocate for Filipino artists and the importance of representation in the international entertainment industry.
Salonga will participate in an interview titled “In unison: Amplifying every voice in ASEAN.” She is expected to share her perspectives on pursuing a creative career in Southeast Asia, bringing the arts and cultural sector into discussions of inclusive growth and regional opportunities.
Academy Award-winning actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie is set to visit Manila on Nov. 11 as a featured speaker at the summit, bringing decades of work in human rights and humanitarian advocacy to the discussion of the region’s development.
The Center for Inclusive Growth announced Jolie’s participation in an Instagram post on Nov. 6, describing her as a global voice for human rights and humanitarian action. The organization said Jolie would join regional leaders and changemakers to explore new perspectives on opportunity, inclusion, and building a more resilient future across Southeast Asia.
Jolie’s talk, titled “From memory to possibility: Cambodia, courage and the power of staying,” will focus on Cambodia’s recovery and the importance of long-term partnerships in helping communities rebuild. It will also examine her longstanding collaboration with Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime who has dedicated his career to ensuring that Cambodia’s history is told by its own people.
Jolie first visited Cambodia more than two decades ago while filming Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and subsequently developed a lasting commitment to the country’s communities. She adopted her son, Maddox, from Cambodia in 2002 and was granted Cambodian citizenship in 2005 in recognition of her contributions to the country.
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Her collaboration with Panh reached a milestone with the 2017 film First They Killed My Father, which she directed and produced, based on the memoir of Cambodian genocide survivor Loung Ung. The summit’s description of their partnership highlights the importance of listening to communities, building trust, and sustaining commitments beyond short-term projects and funding cycles.
Jolie has spent more than two decades advocating for refugees and displaced communities, having served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from 2001 to 2012 before becoming its Special Envoy. During her more than 20 years with the organization, she undertook over 60 field missions to refugee camps and conflict-affected communities, meeting displaced people, government leaders, and humanitarian organizations to push for greater protection of vulnerable populations.
She left her formal role with UNHCR in 2022 to pursue a broader range of humanitarian and human rights initiatives, including efforts to address violence against women and children.
The 2026 ASEAN Inclusive Growth Summit aims to explore ways of turning economic uncertainty into opportunities and advancing sustainable growth throughout the region.
The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth said the lineup “reflects the full breadth of Southeast Asia’s growth story, from boardrooms and government ministries to startups, small businesses, philanthropies, and digital platforms.”
