As immigrants, it was difficult for my parents to find stable work in the early part of their adult lives. Growing up, I attended four different elementary schools in Virginia, Michigan and California, and was often the only Asian person in my class. As the new foreign kid in school, I often got ridiculed or laughed at for what I brought to school, especially when it was smelly, funny looking, or just plain foreign.

I used to try to hide what I was eating, or eat it super quick (that’s probably where I developed my habit of scarfing food down). When I came home from school, I used to complain to my mom about how the kids at school made fun of my lunch. She would tell me to shrug it off, and pack me the exact same thing the next day. In hindsight though, I can see that the lunches she made for me were an expression of love and the desire to pass on our culture, loud and proud.

Thank you NBC Asian America and Jubilee Project for telling our story and letting me be part of this cool video!

Have you ever had carpet and wallpaper? It’s delicious.

(pork sung and seaweed ftw!)

I had the honor of shooting with the supremely talented Dana Patrick last weekend. So. Much. Magic. She really knows how to pick wardrobe, evoke performances and has an amazing make up and hair team as well 🙂

In other news, I reached a milestone this pilot season as I got to chemistry test for a TNT pilot. Although I didn’t book it, I’m thankful to have made it to that stage (a first for me!) and to have had the opportunity to work with the director and the other finalists 🙂

I’m finishing up my Animation voiceover class and am grateful to have learned so much from my awesome teacher Dino Andrade including visualization techniques, villainy, accents, improv, human sounds (running, jumping, sneezing, coughing, etc), personifying inanimate objects, placing the character in different parts of my body, and more. I’m really excited to start making my demo and focus on creating kid characters. I have had so much fun bringing little munchkins to life, and can do a spot on impression of Sally Brown!

Working on the pilot Journey to the East (a US/China co-production) was an incredible experience because of the amazing atmosphere the cast & crew created – there so much love and warmth on set. I felt free to make my character my own, and thoroughly enjoyed playing the dichotomous sweet teacher/strict disciplinarian (all those years of teaching Sunday School came in handy :P). Working on this project also gave me my first experience in an ADR loop group, and having just taken Voiceover 1 at Kalmenson & Kalmenson, it was cool to put all the principals and skills I learned into play. I’m incredibly excited to see where this pilot goes in both the states and in China and can’t wait to work with all these amazing people again.

Here are some photos from the screening on March 8th at The Garland in North Hollywood!

Thank you to everyone who came out to support!

Jeremy Small, best manager in town 🙂

My fellow voiceover actor Hershey Wingler and myself!

Aaron Soon, storyboard artist extraordinaire, and myself

My best friends <3
Becca, the talented creator and writer of this super cute show!

I am very proud to say that I have finished my first rhyming children’s book, titled Taking Flight Through The Northern Lights, and will begin submitting to publishers this year! My goal is to have it published by early next year 🙂

I challenge you to dedicate time each week to making your childhood dream come true!

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In other news, I just finished a Voiceover 1 class and will be starting Animation 1 at Kalmenson & Kalmenson at the end of February. My favorite character that I’ve voiced so far is a bubbly, sweet can of whip cream! It is incredibly fun to bring inanimate objects to life and give them personalities of their own. If you were an inanimate object, what would you be?

Weebly is the most easy to use, powerful, and intuitive CMS platform I’ve ever used and it’s already taking 2016 by storm! With a new App center, beautiful original themes, and numerous free new features, Weebly is the CMS platform for non programmers everywhere.

It’s a time of new years resolutions … and new websites! Making a website about something you’re passionate about, providing value to online readers, and making money from it is the best feeling ever. I’m proud to say that I launched my violin website in 2015 and have helped countless parents, teachers and students make violin learning fun with the CMS platform Weebly. Having no coding experience wasn’t a problem because Weebly is intuitive, easy to use, and very powerful.

With easy to use drag and drop options for text, photos, buttons, google adsense and more, beautiful themes, tech support, and stellar analytics, I was able to monetize very quickly. I also know several friends who have built incredibly successful websites with Weebly and make an unthinkable amount of passive income from their websites.

Weebly has just added a cool new “App Center” which is basically an app store for features you can add to your website. With one click, you can do everything from improve your SEO, integrate an online scheduling system, convert your website traffic into leads, create social feeds, offer live chat on your site, create discounted shipping labels, and more! Anything you can imagine, you can make happen on your website. The apps range from free to $120.

I challenge you to dedicate 30 minutes a day, 3 days a week, to making the site you’ve always dreamed of, about whatever you are most passionate about – whether it’s traveling, the environment, fashion, food, programming or music. It’s a new year and anything is possible! Live the life you’ve imagined. 🙂

What are you waiting for? Check out the new Weebly App Center! Weebly App Center

Full disclosure: the posted link is an affiliate link and I will make a tiny portion of the profit if you decide to use their service (like a few cents per person who signs up). Having used WordPress, Drupal and Weebly, I truly love Weebly the most because of the ease of setting up the website and all the resources provided, and would recommend them even if there wasn’t an affiliate program!

Excited to announce that I booked a role in a pilot that’s a China/US co-production! Can’t reveal any details until it’s sold, but I am very excited to be a part of it!!
Here’s a photo of me and my makeup artist after the shoot (and in plainclothes :P)

In other news, my part in ABC Family’s Switched At Birth aired on the season 4 finale Always Searching for Beauty this past October! Catch me at the end of the episode!

As the leaves turn from green to gold, and the children grow from young to old, I too see changes unfold… in my hair! Just got a new haircut and am super excited to share these pictures that were snapped yesterday by my roommate!

I’m going to Disneyland!

Someone stole my gel pens.

I’m lost without them.

Going to solve this crime before bedtime.

Contact me for all your photoshop needs.

I’ve got a juicy secret.

I just sold a house! WHUDDUP.

My kid got into Harvard Westlake and yours didn’t! Reppin’ that smug lyfe

All the parents love me.

Frump, frump. Frumpity frump.

Less frump, more sass.

As I progress in my acting career, I have found that I most often play the following roles:
Asian mom
Cheery high school student
Quirky, nerdy best friend
Trustworthy office assistant
Cute girl next door/unlikely love interest

We tried to take shots that reflect those roles. What do you think of the headshots? Do they reflect those archetypes?

A commercial I worked on last year got into a festival in Romania! Please vote for us for the audience award here: Arla Commercial

Repping Asian moms everywhere… drink your milk, kids!

Arla "Umbrella Dance" from Jas Shrestha on Vimeo.

I recently played the lead in a short AFI film about a troubled 16 year old girl and the complicated relationships in her life. Here’s a sneak preview!

They determine the path of your life.

I am incredibly grateful to have had the chance to co-star on ABC Family’s Switched At Birth. I am grateful to all the people who’ve helped me get to this point, including my roommates, my teachers, my agent, manager, friends and casting directors, and also to God for putting me these people in my life and giving me this opportunity. This is a small first step towards realizing my dream of becoming a series regular on a successful network TV show!

I was struck by how kind everyone on set was. Katie Leclerc, who plays Daphne Vasquez, is quite possibly the nicest actress I’ve ever met. I had so much fun laughing and joking around with her and my other cast mates in between takes up until the second the director yelled, “Action!” I thought it was so cool that Katie hung out with us when the crew was setting up for the other shots and made the effort to get to know us, even though my fellow cast mates and I were just co-stars. What an amazing cast and crew with such positive energy – there was so much joy the whole day!

I play a mother (for the 4th time in my life… is this my niche? :P) on the season 4 finale of Switched At Birth. But… my part only airs if the show gets picked up for another season, so please watch the show on TV or on the ABC Family website within 3 days after air date and tell all your friends! Thank you friends for your support!

My own trailer!

The nicest actresses you’ll ever meet – Vanessa Marano and Katie Leclerc, who play Bay Kennish and Daphne Vasquez, respectively.

Hanging out with script supervisor Linda Leifer in video village.

My adorable son!

Can you guess where we are? 😉