Tag: Malaysia

  • Lav Chloe on Going Viral by Accident and the ADHD Behind the Voices

    Lav Chloe on Going Viral by Accident and the ADHD Behind the Voices

    Intro

    Lav Chloe did impressions for years before anyone was watching. In private, for her friends. Late last year she recorded one, a single take she planned to delete, and posted it so a few people close to her could see it. She woke up to a million views, then millions more, and the private thing she did to make her friends laugh became her whole career.

    In this episode we get into what she found out about herself along the way. That the same wiring behind the accents, the ease of slipping into someone else’s voice, is the ADHD she was diagnosed with at 30, years after leaving medical school. How the relief of finally understanding herself arrived alongside anger at how long it took. The line she walks doing accents without mocking anyone, and why she ends up defending people in her own comments. And where she thinks the humor comes from in the first place. She is not chasing the next viral hit. She is figuring out what to do with the one she did not plan for.

    Story Highlights

    • Doing impressions privately for her friends for years, then recording one take she meant to delete, posting it, and waking up to a million views.
    • Her first viral video being completely unpolished, and that being the whole point.
    • Coming to see intention and perception as two different things, and making sure her intention is clear in everything she puts out.
    • The care underneath the comedy: underdoing an accent rather than exaggerating it, so it reads as homage and not mockery, especially for accents that already face scrutiny.
    • The haters who accused her of insulting cultures, and the advice she took to heart, that silence is the best response to trolls.
    • Why she still steps into her own comments, not to defend herself, but to defend the people her impressions are about when others use them as cover to mock.
    • The irony she noticed, that the harshest commenters tend to come from multiracial countries, while people from more homogenous places have been more respectful.
    • Suspecting she had ADHD at 27, getting formally diagnosed and medicated at 30, and being in medical school before she ever had a name for it.
    • How the ease of mimicry and code-switching that makes her good at accents is the same ADHD wiring, to the point that a week around someone is enough to pick up how they sound.
    • The grief inside the diagnosis, relief that her life finally made sense, and anger that she could have had the tools years earlier.
    • Turning her hobbies into work and burning out on them, from a dance crew to a food page, and learning to keep some things back just for herself.
    • Why she resists being called an influencer and prefers creator, and her view that cringe is the price you pay for freedom.
    • Where she thinks Malaysian humor comes from, generations of hardship turned into a way of laughing at pain.

    Quote

    “I think it explains a lot of who I am, and thank God for that. Otherwise, I would always think to myself, what’s wrong with me?”

    About Lav Chloe

    Lav Chloe is a Malaysian content creator based in Kuala Lumpur, known for her accents and impressions. She went viral in late 2025 from a video she first made for her friends, and has built a following for her comedy since. She studied medicine before content creation, and is open about living with ADHD, which she was diagnosed with at 30. Find her at @sorude_ on Instagram and TikTok.

    Why This Conversation Matters

    Most people meet Lav through the clips. The accents, the impressions, the videos that ran into the millions. This conversation is the person behind them. She talks about the wiring that makes her good at what she does being the same thing she spent most of her life thinking was wrong with her, about the care she puts into not mocking the people she imitates, and about finding out at 30 what had been going on the whole time. It is not a viral-success story. It is someone discovering that the thing that made her feel broken is the thing she is best at, and working out what to do with it.

    Turning Points

    • Recording an impression she meant to delete, posting it for her friends, and waking up to a million views that turned into a career.
    • Getting formally diagnosed with ADHD at 30, and the anger that came before the relief.
    • Realizing the mimicry behind her accents is the same wiring behind the diagnosis, and that the talent and the thing she thought was wrong with her are one and the same.
    • Deciding to stop performing a version of herself she thought people wanted, and posting through the cringe instead.

    Key Lessons

    • The thing you think is wrong with you can be the thing you are best at. The ADHD she spent years wishing away is the same wiring that lets her slip into any voice.
    • Respect is the line between an impression and mockery. She underdoes the accent and treats it as homage, which is why the work reads as funny instead of cruel.
    • Silence is usually the right answer to trolls, until it isn’t. She lets the hate roll off, except when commenters use her impressions as cover to mock the people behind them, and then she speaks up.
    • A late diagnosis brings relief and grief together. Finally understanding herself made sense of her whole life, and also made her angry about the years she spent without the help.
    • The funniest people are often working through something heavy. Her read on Malaysian humor is that it comes from generations of hardship, turned into a way of laughing at pain.

    If You Enjoyed This Episode

    You might also like:

  • Nini Marini on Becoming a Full-Time Artist and What It Cost

    Nini Marini on Becoming a Full-Time Artist and What It Cost

    Intro

    Nini Marini spent close to 20 years in Malaysian broadcasting before she walked away to make art full time. Then she found out that being a full-time artist made her unhappy, which is not the ending anyone wants from that story.

    In this episode we get into the two lives she ran in parallel for two decades, and the painting that finally collided them. Nini talks about being sent into sports television by her father with no interest in sports, building a job title that did not exist, pitching a three-day week to a company that was not ready for it, and what it actually felt like when the art had to pay the bills. We also get into the work she does now in art philanthropy, and the Malay word her country’s master craftspeople use to describe themselves. It means the lowest of the low. This is a conversation about leaving the safe version of your life and finding it more complicated than the story you tell about it.

    Story Highlights

    • Growing up between a mother who taught her about bread and butter money and a father who told her to get a job and pay him back for her overseas education.
    • Coming home from a UK visual communications degree trained for a role that had no name in Malaysia yet, and landing in Formula 1 production instead.
    • Writing a university thesis on why the Powerpuff Girls looked different from Dexter’s Laboratory, at an art school, and getting away with it.
    • Practicing art on the side for years with a deliberate goal: keep a portfolio alive for the life after television.
    • The “why not” rule that got her onto a billboard and onto a pair of sneakers, mostly unpaid.
    • Freestyling a phoenix rising from the ashes, posting it, and having it reach the group managing director whose next company brainstorm happened to carry the same name.
    • Pitching a deck called Doing Things a Little Differently, getting parked in HR for a month, and leaving with a package instead.
    • Discovering that commissions, galleries, and series turned the one thing that was purely hers into something with a deadline attached.
    • Going back into a structure on purpose, this time with art as the subject matter rather than the thing she squeezed in on weekends.
    • Working on heritage craft now, where the fight is convincing the makers themselves that what they do counts.

    Quote

    “When I’m doing art for myself, it’s pure selfishness. I spend a lot of time with myself. I think, I float, I dream, I meditate, and it’s purely a safe space. Which is why, actually, when I was a full-time artist, I wasn’t quite happy there.”

    About Nini Marini

    Nini Marini is a Malaysian multi-artist and art advocate. She spent close to 20 years in broadcasting, moving from sports production into a content innovation role built around her, while running a parallel life as an illustrator and painter. She left in 2018, spent the pandemic figuring out what a creative life could look like, and now works in art philanthropy focused on heritage craft, creative education, and building an ecosystem that does not force every artist to become an entrepreneur to survive. She still paints, and she is deliberate about keeping that part free of clients. Find her at @ninimarini_ on Instagram or at ninimarini.art.

    Why This Conversation Matters

    The story we tell about leaving a corporate career for art ends at the leaving. Nini’s does not. She got the thing she wanted, sat inside it, and worked out that the pressure had followed her in through the income. Then she went back to a structure without going back on herself. That version of the story is less quotable and much more useful.

    Turning Points

    • Being told to earn her keep after graduating during a recession, and taking a job in a medium she had no training in.
    • The phoenix painting reaching her company’s leadership, and a boss who unveiled it to the whole organization instead of asking why she had a second life.
    • Telling that same boss she wanted to flip her percentages: 60% media and 40% art, reversed, just to see how she would behave.
    • Realizing during the pressured years that the problem was not her talent or her market but that the system was never built for people like her.
    • A front-page business feature on creative education that turned into an invitation into philanthropy, and another “why not.”

    Key Lessons

    • You can build the job you want inside a job you did not choose. Nini turned sports production into a content innovation role by treating every unfamiliar brief as something to learn from.
    • Making your art your income changes what you make. When paintings have to be affordable and shows have to be series, the work starts getting intentional in a way that has nothing to do with the work.
    • Structure is not the enemy of creativity. She missed it, went back to it, and got her art back in the process.
    • Naming yourself is a practical act, not a vanity one. She invented “multi-artist” because the alternative was answering the same question about hobbies for the rest of her life.
    • The people making the thing are often the last to believe it has value, and that belief gap is its own kind of heritage loss.

    If You Enjoyed This Episode

    You might also like:

  • Erica Eng on Rejection, Reflection, and Finding Freedom Through Art

    Erica Eng on Rejection, Reflection, and Finding Freedom Through Art

    Intro

    Erica Eng is a Malaysian comic artist and illustrator best known for her Eisner Award–winning graphic novel Fried Rice. Her work captures the quiet beauty of everyday life in Malaysia — the routines, the rituals, and the relationships that shape who we are.

    In this conversation, Erica talks about her creative journey from drawing as a child to publishing Fried Rice, a webcomic that started as a personal story and went on to win one of the world’s highest honors in comics. She shares the lessons she’s learned from rejection, why storytelling is a form of therapy, and how faith and family keep her grounded as she continues to create.

    Story Highlights

    • How childhood memories and book illustrations sparked her love for art
    • Applying to her dream school, getting rejected, and finding inspiration in that moment
    • How Fried Rice began as a webcomic and grew into an Eisner-winning book
    • Writing from personal memories and everyday Malaysian life
    • Balancing animation work, faith, and creative projects after graduation

    Quote

    “I idealized this journey of becoming an artist and going to a particular school and being successful in a particular way. But in the end, it was not an acceptance letter, it was a rejection letter.”

    About Erica Eng

    Erica Eng is a Malaysian comic artist and illustrator whose debut work, Fried Rice, won the prestigious Eisner Award for Best Webcomic in 2020. Her art is known for its quiet storytelling, capturing slices of life that reflect memory, faith, and belonging. Erica has spoken at creative and literary events including TEDx, and her book is now available in print across Malaysia and Singapore. Alongside her illustration work, she continues to explore new projects that merge art, writing, and reflection.

    Why This Conversation Matters

    Erica’s journey is about perseverance through rejection and the power of storytelling to make sense of life. Her honesty about faith, doubt, and creative growth reveals that success isn’t just about achievement — it’s about staying true to your calling even when the path shifts.

    Turning Points

    Erica’s defining moment came not with success but rejection — the email from her dream art school that didn’t go her way. That disappointment became the seed for Fried Rice, a story about ambition, family, and quiet resilience. Publishing it online led her to unexpected recognition, including the Eisner Award that changed her career. Later, working in animation and balancing faith reshaped how she sees success: not as fame or validation, but as faithfulness to her craft and her voice.

    Key Lessons

    • Rejection can redirect you. The “no” you fear might lead to the work you’re meant to create.
    • Everyday life is worthy of art. The ordinary can be extraordinary when seen with care.
    • Faith grounds creativity. Spiritual practice gives meaning beyond recognition.
    • Let the work lead you. Focus on the story, not the outcome.
    • Keep learning. Growth is about curiosity, not control.

    If You Enjoyed This Episode

    You might also like: