Stella Ng grew up in Singapore as a well-adjusted girl whose interests included guitar-playing and singing. At 18, she was already taking on modelling assignments in Singapore, including a fruit juice advertisement opposite Malaysian singer Ah Niu. She also wrote lyrics for singers such as Fann Wong. This led to a recording company signing her on in 2000, and in 2001, she released her debut album. This album portrayed her as the sweetest girl-next-door and sold 100,000 copies in Taiwan. This also led to her doing a drama serial in Taiwan. Her next album in 2002 positioned her as a singer-composer with some success. In 2003, she starred in her first movie Zhongguo gongfu shaonu zu (2003) and another drama serial filmed in Singapore. In 2004, she released her third Mandarin album.