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Benjamin Castro (벤자민 카스트로) is a Filipino singer-songwriter and television personality. He is best known as a member of Anomii, formed through the reality competition program Into The Spotlight.
Early life[]
Benjamin Klyne Castro was born in Mogpog, Marinduque Province, Philippines on July 22, 2003. He is the youngest of four children, with his mother working as a nurse and his father working as an accountant. He and his siblings grew up at a middle class neighborhood in the district of Santa Cruz, Manila, Philippines. He aspired to be an architect or an urban planner when he grew up, but was discouraged when he realized he wasn't proficient enough in the skills required to be a professional in the field. He recalls growing up as a sickly child, and was hospitalized several times mainly due to Kawasaki disease and pneumonia.
As his father lost his high-paying job due to his employer being busted for illegal labor practices, Benjamin and his relationship with his father deteriorated fast, as the latter became increasingly ill-tempered and cold-blooded towards him. He also remembers being forced to attend suspicious church services every Sunday. When he was 11, the court approved an annulment and he was successfully placed under the care of his mother after she discovered shocking evidence of neglect behavior. For the first time, Benjamin had grasped the entire situation he had endured— what he thought was common discipline and behavior from a strict parent was abuse. Utterly disturbed, he fell into depression and struggle to cope with his emotions, eventually starting to use songwriting and journaling as an outlet to understand what he was going through.
Benjamin's relationship with music is complex; he was initially not interested in pursuing a career in the music industry, as he didn't think he had the talent for it and didn't know how to play any instruments aside from the lyre. However, after watching a full bootleg recording of the 2000 Hangang Artistry Awards that he found on YouTube, he developed a fixation for 2000s pop music and Korean music in general, which eventually led him down the K-pop rabbithole.
Career[]
2025[]
In February 2025, Benjamin Castro was revealed as a contestant in the survival audition program Into The Spotlight, as an independent trainee with no company affiliation or trainee experience. In the first round, he performed Randomize's "Better Off Alone" alongside his fellow foreign trainees Adam Guo and Leonardo Chen, but received no stars and was unable to rise in class during the Signal Song . During the start of the show, he ranked 27th place and dropped to 30th in the second episode despite being recognized as a Filipino trainee, due to his pre-debut scandals as well as being overshadowed by Vincent Lim, a more popular half-Filipino trainee. However, by the Girl Group Song Battle round, he was making his presence known through drama, as he stirred further discourse after feuding with popular trainee Hong Heonbo while they were practicing for their performance of LE SSERAFIM's "Crazy". In the first elimination round, he ranked 15th place, as he gained more loyal supporters who were fascinated by his audacious personality.
While many believed that his strategy of notoriety will eventually backfire on him, Benjamin cemented his place in the lineup during the Position Battle round, in which he performed Rap Position song Kyler Kim and Park Junmi's "Pinned By The Monster" with trainees Hong Jaehyun, Leonardo Chen, and Kim Jeonghoon. During their performance, Benjamin shocked audiences and sent mentors to tears with his flow and self-written Korean rap, as his unfiltered verses particularly spoke of fighting depression, societal validation, and desperation to be successful in a world where you've already been set up to fail. Benjamin and the three other contestants ended up winning against their rival team, which at the time seemed undefeatable as it was stacked with the show's best rappers. In the Creative Concept Battle, he decided to prove that he can also be a lead vocalist as he performed in team "In The Same Place, In The Same Time" as their Main Vocalist. This marked his second victory in the show, as he won a 75,000 vote benefit following his team's victory and entered the top 3 for the first time in the third elimination round. As finals kicked in, Benjamin became both a cult personality and a highly respected trainee among viewers of Into The Spotlight, and with his loyal army of fans locking in, he ultimately ranked 1st place with a staggering 2 million votes, debuting as part of seven-member boy group Anomii.
2029[]
On November 12, 2029, Benjamin Castro released his debut studio album Random Filipino Guy. The album and its singles gained mainstream recognition after being nominated at the Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, Best Electronic Album, and Best Global Music Performance.
Artistry[]
As a songwriter, Benjamin's preferred songwriting technique is to "word vomit" by writing messy paragraphs or sentences spilled by his mind before figuring out how to create a song from fragments of what he just wrote. His music is either classified into humorous lyrics with often risqué jokes and internet pop culture references, and more serious, poetic songs that paint vibrant pictures or scenarios in listener's minds.
Personal life[]
Benjamin is nearsighted and tends to wear his prescription glasses all the time in public, including in several performances. He claims to have the worst vision among all six of the members.
While Benjamin was born and baptized Roman Catholic like the vast majority of the Philippine population, he has disassociated himself from the Church since his teenage years due to their traditionally conservative views. He describes his relationship with spirituality as "continuously evolving", influenced by indigenous beliefs of his adoptive grandparents: "I believe there are deities and an afterlife for sure, but I'll never know what lies beyond our empirical world until I actually cease to live."
Personality[]
Castro in 2026
Benjamin Castro is a name that if mentioned to an Into The Spotlight stan, would either elicit sentiments of hatred or enthusiastic love, depending on what fandoms they are part of. Described as the guilty pleasure pick of many audiences, Benjamin was undoubtedly known as one of the primary villains of the show due to his overblown controversies. He was the perfect material for evil editing, to the point that some had conspired that he had planned it from the start. Benjamin didn't care and unapologetically stayed himself throughout the show, whether it be through him using his absurdist one-liner humor, talking about his interestingly niche interests like public transportation or supernatural creatures, or his boldness to verbally confront his peers when he disagrees with their actions. He knew he was disliked by many, yet embraced this antagonism as his branding.
However, despite his polarizing reputation, Benjamin grew to be one of the most loved contestants by fans, peers, and staff, because he was someone who was genuine and interesting to watch. As an idol, he never tries to compromise his identity to appeal to people, but still wins the hearts of his supporters for being funny, eccentric, and hardworking, as reflected in his efforts to learn not only the Korean language but also the local culture and lifestyle so he could assimilate well. As the second eldest, he serves as the group's big brother, being attentive to their security during promotions and being there when Heonbo or his dongsaengs need comfort or advice.
Controversies[]
Politics[]
After being asked by an international fan about his stance on the issue, Benjamin expressed support for an immediate end and accountability for the Gaza genocide: "One can argue that there are historical and cultural complexities on this conflict but I just believe that objectively, no civilian population deserves to be subject to brutal, collective punishment and complete annihilation of their communities. The Global South has suffered too much at the hands of people who claim to uphold a free and liberated society but are actually psychopaths in hiding." In a deleted Instagram post, he also expressed disgust towards Western political parties such as the United States' Democratic Party for actively platforming Zionists in their ranks despite claiming to be progressive. This led him to receive backlash on social media, with Zionists accusing him of being "antisemitic" while Kamala Harris supporters claimed he was a "Trump supporter", telling him to stay out of American people's business.
In a follow-up post, he denied any of these allegations, saying, I will always stand for the path that champions progressiveness, human rights, and inclusivity, so I outright deny any allegations of me supporting political ideologies that are clearly against that. However, I also believe that unconditionally worshipping political figures and refusing to hold them accountable is also just another form of depravity and lack of empathy towards people who are forced to suffer an endless cycle of violence due to ethnonationalist agendas that the West doesn't even hide their endorsement of."
Heterophobia allegations[]
During the airing of Into The Spotlight, antifans of Benjamin dug up an old sarcastic joke posted by him on Facebook in 2019, which they labeled as offensive to straight people and mocking religion.
When I was young, my religion indoctrinated me into being straight. I thought it was okay, as a rebellious teenager, but as I grew up, I realized that it is not right to commit oneself to heterosexuality and other sinful acts that disrespect the rule of God. A union between man and woman just never sounds right. I don't understand heterosexuals.
Old Twitter account[]
Dragging K-pop groups and fandoms[]
During Into The Spotlight, Benjamin's old X (formerly known as Twitter) account, which had 55 followers and 5,670 posts prior to going inactive and being set to private, was leaked by an unknown account. While majority of the posts were normal posts and retweets about boy group SOLVIZ and girl group TWICE as well as other artists he was a fan of like Chappell Roan and Victoria Monét, netizens took interest in some Tweets, in which he seemed to criticize certain groups and fandoms. This included posts saying,
"#tbh if i woke up as a "BTSpopper", the first thing i would do is timestamp 3:54 of katy perry's TOTGA music video"
"a QUANTUM stan calling SOLVIZ's discography mid is crazy. do you not hear yourself?"
Benjamin's negative posts received large interactions on Twitter, and soon enough, multiple fandoms started regularly dogpiling on order to destroy his reputation. While the contestant nor Into the Spotlight's producers never fully addressed these allegations during the airing of the show, he later acknowledged the existence of the account on the artist-to-fan application Realmu, saying: "I extend my apologies if anything from my Twitter footprint made you uncomfortable."
Anti-European allegations[]
In one post from his old Twitter account, Benjamin expressed his dislike for European people in a Tweet, saying:
Just tried to argue with a French K-pop fan on Twitter. I hope KGB mice chew on the wires of Mainland Europe's electrical grid and permanently damage it.
In a later Ask Me Anything thread in Anomii's social media page, Benjamin possibly referenced this post after a Danish fan asked him if he would visit Europe someday: "Of course! Before somebody else starts, there's a lot of cool European countries that I want to visit, my top 3 are Iceland, Ireland, and Britain ♡. Much power to European Lovemii's! xx" A fan later pointed out that he did not mention any countries from Continental Europe.
Villain arc[]
Over the first half of Into The Spotlight's run, Benjamin was frequently portrayed in an antagonistic spotlight, with some contestants in Episodes 1 and 2 describing him as "intimidating" and "scary", while his performance was exaggerated to appear to be a severe failure. Some audiences would take the bait and negatively comment about him online, while those who were more favorable to him condemned the deliberate editing choices and attributed some to microaggressions and racism towards Southeast Asians.
Discography[]
See also: Anomii/Discography
Studio albums[]
| Title | Information | Charts | Sales | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KOR | US | |||
| RANDOM FILIPINO GUY |
|
1 | 39 |
|
Features on[]
- "LMAO" (Jeon Miyoung featuring Benjamin Castro) (2025)
- "Slow Dancing In The Darkness" (Byun Yanbin featuring Benjamin Castro) (2027)
- "I Thought That You Should Know" (Lady Ruby featuring Benjamin Castro) (2028)
Writing/composition credits[]
| Title | Year | Artist | Album | Credits | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lyrics | Music | Arr. | ||||
| "Dumb Dance (Spin The Record)" | 2025 | Carboncopyluv | Voicemails I Can't Send | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| "Trauma Dumping" | ✔ | ✔ | ||||
| "Horn On My Head (어느 날 머리에서 뿔이 자랐다)" | Anomii | Do You Even Know What True Love Is? | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| "Fall of a Fine Voice (고운 목소리의 몰락)" | Anomii | Ongi (온기) | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| "Only 14 Days" | 2026 | Anomii | The Big Small Things In Life | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| "Superficial Love" | ✔ | |||||
| "Imago Dei" | ✔ | |||||
| "Footprints (Your Presence Never Dies)" | ✔ | |||||
| "Drums of Fate" | 2029 | Himself | RANDOMFILIPINOGUY | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| "Akira" | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| "Tastes Like Me" | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| "Keep Your Mouth Shut" | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| "I'm So F---ing Sick of Throwbacks" | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| "Coffee Shop" | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| "Might Never Do This Again" | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| "Frenemies" | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| "Endorphins" | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| "h@pp¥ ut▓p:an hළav✧n" | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
Filmography[]
See also: Anomii/Filmography
Television shows[]
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Bitter Daydreamers | TBA | Supporting role |
Trivia[]
- Likes: Thriller films, art pop, world geography, pre-colonial folklore
- Dislikes: Venomous animals, pretentious people, pickles
- Hobbies: Writing characters, daydreaming
- Favorite food: Jamaican patties, stir-fry rice, pancit canton
- Favorite color: Olive green
- Favorite films: Anak, Feng Shui, Brokeback Mountain
- Favorite artists: Aaliyah, Xavier Luna, Chappell Roan, Unique, Syd Hartha
- Benjamin has two detailed tattoos on his upper shoulder: one of the Yukhunhwism Quad, and the other of a night owl. He confirmed it on a Realmu post in September 2025.
- Benjamin wears an old necklace, similar to an anting-anting, with various colored gems. It was inherited from his grandmother, who made it with the intention of protecting the wearer from evil spirits.
- Benjamin claims to have invented over a hundred fictional characters and even countries in his head throughout his teenage life. His favorite subreddit is r/worldbuilding.
- Benjamin considers himself more of a "group person" than a "solo person".
- Benjamin is active on media aggregation platforms Letterboxd and RateYourMusic.
- Benjamin still uses old emoticons like :D and :3 rather than making use of emojis.
- Benjamin's audition tape for Into The Spotlight was a vocal cover of The Last Children of Presagia's "Like Nothing Mattered", with his friend serving as a backing guitarist.
- Benjamin's dream collaboration artist is indie OPM artist Nina Louise.