Formerly known as Charice Pempengco or the mononym Charice, he shot into international fame in 2007, when he appeared on Ellen DeGeneres’ show. In the years that followed, he would perform for former Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, guest on Orprah Winfrey’s show, and be mentored by David Foster. He also played a recurring role on Glee. At the time, Jake was known for belting out songs by the likes of Whitney Houston and Celine Dion. Zyrus soon began to explore a masculine form of gender expression soon after the death of his father to much speculation within the Filipino media circuit about his sexuality. In 2013, he came out as lesbian on The Buzz, a Filipino talk show. But in 2017, he announced that he was a trans man on Instagram and Twitter, changing his social media handles to reflect his new stage name: Jake Zyrus.