Jeanette Aw is the youngest of her parents' 3 children. She has an elder brother & sister. She graduated from National University of Singapore. She was among the first newcomer actresses to be recruited by the now defunct MediaWorks in early 2001. She won the "Most Popular Newcomer Award" and and "Best Performer Award" that year.

Later that year she was invited to co-star in a Taiwanese production. She left MediaWorks for MediaCorp in 2002.