Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja is an up-and-coming Indonesian-American actress who is best known for her role as Mika in the intriguing sci-fi/drama film After Yang.

 

MALEA EMMA TJANDRAWIDJAJA BIOGRAPHY: AGE, EARLY LIFE, FAMILY, EDUCATION

Tjandrawidjaja was born on July 14, 2011 (Malea Tjandrawidjaja age: 13) in Los Angeles, California. Her parents are Esther and Arman Tjandrawidjaja. She has one older brother, Mark Andrew Tjandrawidjaja. She is currently attending Mandarin Immersion Elementary School.

MALEA EMMA TJANDRAWIDJAJA BIOGRAPHY: CAREER

In an exclusive interview with uInterview, Tjandrawidjaja explained who her character is in the hit film After Yang and how exactly she relates to the plot.

“So, my character’s name is Mika,” Tjandrawidjaja exclaimed. “She’s an adopted child from China. She technically is dealing with if she belongs or not in the family because she doesn’t think that she belongs because she’s adopted, and some of her friends from her school were bullying her because they wanted to know who her real parents were. And so, my character Mika is just, she’s a girl trying to find out where she belongs and who her family really is. So, yeah that’s my character.”

Tjandrawidjaja then went on to discuss whether or not she believes humans and robots can become so intimately connected like they are in the film.

“Well, because of the time right now, I don’t think that anyone can really know,” the young actress said. “But in my opinion when the time comes where there are robots that are actually that realistic – because After Yang is in a different setting. It’s in the future, so it’s not the time that we are in right now in real life. So, I think that right now it’s not like After Yang yet, where robots don’t really have a connection with humans and they don’t have a personality yet. But I’m pretty sure that someday in the future, humans will be able to become friends with robots and they can be part of human life.” 

When asked about some of the challenges of trying to interact with something that’s supposed to be non-human, here is what Tjandrawidjaja had to say:

“I guess it was kind of different because in my mind I’m talking to a robot, but to be honest, it wasn’t really that hard,” Tjandrawidjaja confessed. “Because in the movie, my character Mika already thinks that Yang the robot is like her brother. So, I just pretended that that was my brother and I just gave like a little sister type of acting, and I don’t think that I was thinking about talking to a robot, but more of talking to a brother. So, I don’t think there was really a challenge because I was talking to a robot.”

MALEA EMMA TJANDRAWIDJAJA BIOGRAPHY: PERSONAL LIFE

Tjandrawidjaja currently resides in Los Angeles with her family. She speaks an impressive four languages, as she is capable of conversing in English, Spanish, Mandarin and Indonesian. In addition, Tjandrawidjaja is highly passionate about gymnastics, soccer and dancing. She also knows how to play four instruments, including the ukulele, piano, violin and guitar.

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