Penpetch Benyakul

Penpetch Benyakul (Thai: เพ็ญเพ็ชร เพ็ญกุล, born 31 March 1974), known as Jab, is a Thai actor and singer with around seventy-five screen credits going back to the early 1990s. Younger Thai audiences now mostly meet him as somebody’s father, which undersells a career that started with an award.

He finished secondary school at Bangkok Christian College and took a bachelor’s degree at Suan Dusit University, then Suan Dusit Rajabhat, in the Faculty of Management Science, studying communication arts with a specialism in radio and television.

His breakthrough came early. He won the Phra Surasawadee Award, one of Thailand’s royal film honours, as Best Male Newcomer for Reo Kwa Jai Klai Kern Fun. In 1997 he released an album, Ik Nueng Jab, and he has kept a second career in music alongside acting. His screen work through the 1990s and 2000s includes the Channel 3 series Mai On in 1996.

He has been a steady presence in Thai anthology and period drama since. He appeared twice in Club Friday (2012), as Chatphol and as Sira, played Direk in Mae Bia (2015), Prince Kaew-In in My Hero Series (2018), Trai in the sitcom Suek Rak Kham Rua (2018), and both a doctor and M.R. Puttipat Juthathep in Dhevaprom (2024). His recent run is dense: My Cherie Amour (2024), Fourever You (2024) as Direk, Memoir of Rati (2025) as Ram Wisut, two roles in Khemjira (2025), Class Crush Crisis (2026) and Pls Love (2026).

He plays Pruek in the Channel One 31 Boys’ Love series Flower Boy (2026).