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MANILA — Raised in a family of entrepreneurs and an heir to a retail business, Gino Roque had always been groomed to carry on that legacy, until “Pinoy Big Brother” (PBB) changed the course of his life.

Roque, whose family is behind the Kamiseta Group of Companies primarily known for its fashion line, joined the ABS-CBN reality show’s “Otso” edition in 2018.

“Imagine, my whole life, my whole future was already planned out for me, and ‘PBB’ changed the whole caboodle. I’ve been working since I was 8, I was already in our office, I was already in one of our factories at, like, 12, 13,” he told ABS-CBN News.

“And all of a sudden, I’m here producing teleseryes!”

Roque has so far produced two romantic-comedy series: “Beauty and the Boss,” where he starred with Elisse Joson; and the ongoing “Pasabuy,” where he is paired with Heaven Peralejo.

“I wouldn’t be here without ‘PBB.’ I’ve always wanted to enter the entertainment industry, but I didn’t know how. And then, when ‘PBB’ came, it opened the doors to everything. Everything just opened up.

“It was just up to us if I was going to grab that opportunity. As a businessman, for me, you look at the positives, you look at the negatives, and then you just say, ‘Gung ho, let’s just go!’” he said.

Roque went on to star in a number of ABS-CBN programs, and for a time was paired with fellow “PBB” graduate Kiara Takahashi.

He had hoped to focus on acting first after his “PBB” stint, but the pandemic, Roque said, expedited the process towards his goal of becoming a producer.

“It kind of fast-tracked everything. So I had to double-time on my acting, double-time on a lot of things,” he said.

Now, Roque finds himself juggling both producing and acting, while also attending to his other business ventures.

He waxed optimistic about the growth of his apparel-turned-events company Forza, saying the success of “Pasabuy” spurred fresh opportunities to keep producing screen titles.

For Roque, the mission, put simply, is to create memorable experiences.

“Before the pandemic, I would do events. You sell them a product, great. But people kind of forget what they bought last week. People will never forget that concert you went to when you fell down, or that obstacle course where you had mud splattered on your face, or a series that really got you. You won’t forget those things. That’s an experience that they will hold forever,” he said.