Soung Sopheak was born in the southeastern province of Kandal, Cambodia, on 10 April 1978, a poor child in a war-torn country. In 1996, Sopheak took the chance to learn the art albeit having a completely distant reason: to get on an airplane one day. He started learning Lakhorn Niyeay when he came to study at the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh. Lakhorn Niyeay or Spoken Theatre was once a popular art in the Kingdom in the 1940s. The performance art is solely based on the characters’ speeches and the storylines usually depict deep social issues of the present time. Overcoming enormous odds Sopheak gained his Certificate of Pedagogy in 2003. In 2008 he graduated BA, Drama and Directing at the Royal University of Fine Art (RUFA). Intensive work on his final major coursework, a drama dealing with the poorest of the poor, showed him made not only the power of drama but the wealth of Cambodia’s human talent and its cultural richness. Over the years, Sopheak didn’t just achieve his dream; he had grown fully in love with the art and how it influences people and the society. He worked at the Cambodia Children’s Fund as head of arts education. There, he wasn’t able to implement his art, but he was able to connect with the children living in the dumpsite at Steung Meanchey. He went on to combine his learning and experience with an ambition to help rejuvenate and extend the impact of Cambodia’s culture. While Sopheak helped many young Cambodian artists to express their potential within Cambodia, he also made an international mark. In 2012 he participated in the International Theatre Festival in Hamburg, Germany. In 2014 he contributed to a Media and Production event in Australia. A year later, he founded Khmer Art Action, aiming to make Lakhorn Niyeay alive and to show the important roles it plays in depicting stories commonly disregarded. KAA is working to connect more people, especially the young generation to spoken theatre so that they can understand the role that Lakhorn Niyeay plays in Cambodian society