Firmly believing that he can write his own destiny, Lionel turned his back on his Economics Degree to pursue his passion for the moving visuals. Starting in dramas and sitcoms, and later magazine varieties and documentaries - he soon expanded his portfolio to writing, producing, directing and even editing! The acclaimed Heritage series - which he was also series producer for - was awarded Best Documentary finalist in the New York Festivals in 1998 and a Best Documentary nominee at the Asian Television Awards in the same year.

Besides being involved with production work in his day job, Lionel's fervent passion in film has also seen him taking up a personal documentary - "Geraldene" - a self-funded documentary about a local tour guide – which premiered as an official selection in the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival in 2001. Some of his other short films – shot on both film & video - were also exhibited in Singapore and New York including a film web project Wirecrossing: 24 Hours in Central Singapore --- done with local theatre group Spell7.

In 2001, after completing an Intensive Directing Workshop at New York University (and witnessing the Sept 11 attacks in New York), he decided to pursue his passion for story-telling... and expanded his portfolio to theatre. Over the last 5 years, he wrote, directed (and even acted in) "Nonsensical Idiosyncrasies 1 & 2", "Hearing Voices" – “Threesome” – “Adultery” and – “Swingle” a musical with original music by Iskandar Ismail - all staged to full houses and positive responses from audiences.