Tharoth “Little Frog” Sam is a female Cambodian warrior, who once hunted frogs in the countryside because her family didn’t have food. Now, she finds herself juggling her dreams, being an actress and a professional fighter. She appeared in Angelina Jolie’s “First They Killed My Father” as a Khmer Rouge leader, and has just finished playing a modest role in the Khmer TV Drama “The Farm”.

“It’s not a big role, I just play a kick ass who saves the main girl from the bad guys,– in Jailbreak I played a bigger role.”

In Jailbreak Sam plays a tough police officer who, as the only girl, joins a macho police squad on a dangerous mission. Little Frog’s inspirational journey is proving to the women of Cambodia that they can chase their dreams and fight their way out of poverty.

Kicking ass may be Sam’s calling in life. The Cambodian Top Team star is 2-2 in Mixed Martial Arts and on Saturday she will kick ass for real in Bangkok’s action-movie MMA promotion Full Metal Dojo: Bigger, Badder, Blacker, Madder.

She will take on Thailand’s own Surarak “Bam” Kamla and aim to get back to winning ways after a lengthy period away from the fight scene. Being a movie star may be a dream, but fighting is in her blood.

“I haven’t fought in over a year and I just miss the fight scene, I miss competing and I need to get back in that cage and fight again.”

Sam admits that her conflicting schedules affect her training, but she’s doing what she loves and doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

“Being in the movies was what I always wanted to do, but when I discovered fighting I realized I love that even more! So it’s great to do both. Being in the movies affects my training time, which isn’t perfect, but I still like the lifestyle.”

Sam was always an unusual girl; she competed in what culture would deem ‘male sports ‘such as football, swimming and then she discovered Bokator, the ancient Khmer martial art in 2008. Her flair for fighting led her to compete in Kun Khmer in 2012 and after winning her first fight, she knew she had something.

Following a foray into wrestling and Vietnamese martial arts, she began training MMA at Cambodian Top Team and racked up two professional victories before losing her last two fights. Now she is looking for a big win in the Atomweight division on Saturday at FMD:14.

FMD:14 Bigger, Badder, Blacker, Madder takes place on Saturday July 1st at Insanity nightclub in Sukhumvit soi 11, Bangkok.

To purchase tickets head on over to Ticket Melon or to find out more about the event, check out the FMD14 Facebook Event Page.