We were lucky to catch up with Dylan recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dylan, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
I get my resilience from my mom. Seeing her survive in the United States as a single mother immigrant from Indonesia and eventually get a stable career really influenced how I am as a person. I see that most challenges are able to be overcome as long as we know how to play the game.
I remember going from house to apartment with my mom trying to find a place to live after losing our house in the 2008 recession. To me, we were going on an adventure going from place to place, finding a place that would accept my mom to live there. She always made life feel comfortable, so I was oblivious to our struggle. The Pursuit of Happyness movie really resonated with me because it mirrored what my mom and I were going through at the time. We were lucky enough to be in rooms in houses and apartments. She was an architect in Indonesia, so it must have been grueling to be rejected from jobs she was overqualified for. It wasn’t until I got older that I started to understand what my mom went through and how epic it was for her to survive during that time.
My mom gave me the opportunity to act on screen and would bring me to auditions in LA even when were still in San Francisco. I have my resilience to get through challenges, because I know that she’s been through worse and made it on the other side. As a young adult building my own story, I’m learning that it’s up to me to use what I’ve seen through my mom’s story and apply it to my own challenges.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am an Indonesian-American actor and director in the Los Angeles area. During the day, I’m an operations manager for an Amazon building and on my off time I act, direct short films, and help with whatever I can on a film se. I’m focused on creating stories from underrepresented backgrounds and have a passion in bringing Indonesian diaspora stories to life.
When I was a kid, I remember watching an episode of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and I watched until the end credits. I saw that Zack’s real name is Dylan Sprouse. I remember thinking that if he could do it, I could do it too. As a kid I didn’t think about restrictions. I asked my mom how I could start acting, and she started to look into it. Soon enough, I was taking acting classes and auditioning for commercials and shows. I don’t remember much from that time besides modeling in New York for a gig and traveling from San Francisco to Los Angeles for auditions and jobs.
When I was nine years-old, I auditioned for this YouTube show “Kids React.” By this time, my mom and I already moved into a room Temple City not far from Los Angeles. I thought it was just another audition for a show or commercial that I would or would not get. I didn’t know I’d end up appearing on 300+ episodes, watching the rise of the small YouTube channel to millions of subscribers over 10 years, and attending the 2012 Daytime Emmys for the AOL Best Web Series Award.
As the years went on, I wanted to pursue a normal life. It felt like I was living two lives like Miley Cyrus on Hannah Montana but of course to a lesser degree. I felt like there were two perceptions of myself. I spent a lot of time on sets and away from school. People kept referencing my “sushi with the blood on it” meme, and I enjoyed the attention at first, but I started to feel, “Oh… this is all I am to people.” As a kid, it was hard for me to come to terms with this. It was hard to be different when my upbringing was already pretty different from the other kids. I wanted to be known for something I’d created intentionally and be proud of. I started playing basketball to fit in and started to get good at it. Once I was in high school, I joined a variety of clubs from theater to debate to UNICEF to cross country. I fell back in love with performing through theater. It was through theater that I started creating my own stories and finding joy in being both an actor and director.
After graduating from UCLA with an Economics degree and Film & TV minor, I continue this double life in pursuing my job as an operations manager as well as my creative work. We all have this double life in a sense, but it might be better to think of it as two halves of a whole life.
My creative work now is about creating truthful stories whether it’s through acting or filmmaking I’ve grappled with the question of, “Why do you want to be an actor?” for quite some time now. It’s ranged from “I want to be famous” to “I want to inspire others” to “I do it for the love of the craft.” The answer to that question will continue to change, but, at the moment, I do it because it’s fun to find something truthful.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Three qualities that are impactful in my journey are consistency, vision, and action. People talk about these qualities the most, but they ring true from my experience. I’m still young in my acting career, and I know that to be successful I need the consistency of taking classes and constantly putting myself out there on different sets. I don’t really care about what I’m doing on a set as long as I’m gaining more experience and meeting more people. As a kid, I earned money and talked with important-looking producers and talent, and it gave me the confidence to talk to whoever. Whenever I’ve set out on a project, I have a vision but sometimes I fail at the consistency of taking action. I would advise folks to keep doing the small actions, like opening Arc Studio everyday even if you don’t get much writing done.
Action is the most important quality though. I could know everyone in the world to get a project off the ground, but if I don’t connect the dots and put a plan into place that project will never get created. After seeing how my child acting career declined once I stopped taking action, it made me realize that all it takes to get the ball rolling again is consistent action to start whatever you want to do. For me now, it’s submitting to auditions constantly and working consistently towards creating the projects I want to see on screen.
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
The number one challenge I’m facing right now is getting my short film in Indonesia off the ground. This past year, I have been writing a short film based off of my experience meeting my father for the first and last time as a twelve year-old. I plan to shoot it in Indonesia and capture some of the raw feelings of being an Indonesian-American kid who’s never been to Indonesia. It was odd growing up and receiving praise and fan messages from Indonesian viewers despite not knowing Indonesian and never being to the country. A lot of diaspora folks feel this way, but it was a huge shock to me going to Indonesia after hearing about my mother and my family’s experience living there.
My existence is a bit of an anomaly. I was born out of wedlock to a Chinese-Indonesian mother from a native Indonesian father. I did not understand this until going to Indonesia a few times and seeing the division between native and Chinese Indonesians. Indonesia has a silent history about these ethnic tensions that have improved in recent years but are still subtly present. I grew up shielded from all this since I was in America. It’s been a challenge to research and discover all of this history for myself and find a way to give context and nuance for the narrative I want to portray.
In the past year, I’ve visited Indonesia twice: one for my grandmother’s funeral and the other for my cousin’s wedding. I am trying to overcome this challenge by taking action and developing my script to a point where I can create something that I’m proud of.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dylandjoen/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-djoenadi/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DylanDjoen
Image Credits
Brandon Tran
Immanuel Ibon
Austin Drake Malabuyoc
Yusef Ferguson
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
