After more than a decade in the spotlight, the Malaysian actress is embracing new challenges, finding joy in marriage, and learning to see every twist and turn as part of the journey.
The trouble with adventure is that you rarely recognise it while it’s happening. At the time, it is simply a decision to take a different job, a person you fall in love with, a new thing you decide to learn, or a piece of news that changes the course of an otherwise ordinary day. Only later, when you look back, does the pattern begin to emerge. All the things you thought would take you somewhere else, and all the things that brought you here instead.
A Decade in the Making
For Mimi Lana, age 30, going on 31 this year, the past decade has brought its fair share of unexpected turns. There have been new characters, the growing pains of a career in the spotlight and, more recently, a new chapter in her personal life. Through it all, she has learned to take things as they come, find something to learn from the difficult moments and, perhaps most importantly, become more comfortable with who she is.
During our cover shoot, Mimi is every bit the laid-back person she describes herself to be. Dressed in a relaxed T-shirt and jeans, she carries herself lightly. She is soft-spoken and doesn’t say much at first but makes a point of getting to know everyone on set, greeting the team and easing into the room in her own way. She knows a thing or two about the camera. Having spent more than 10 years in the industry, Mimi has grown from an actress navigating the early stages of her career into someone who understands the value of experience, both in front of the lens and behind it. Yet, for all the years she has spent working, she remains curious about what else she can discover.
“I like something that I’ve never tried before,” she tells us. “I like to step out of my comfort zone.”
It is a sentiment that has found its way into her work. This year, Mimi ventured into romantic comedy for the first time on the big screen with Mojoku Hilang!, which was released earlier in July and co-stars Indonesian actor Adipati Dolken. Her next release, Takluk 2: Ops Daulat, is slated for November 2026, marking another chapter in a year of new cinematic experiences. She has also taken on horror, a genre she has explored before but continues to find exciting.
Her latest horror project, Polong, presented a different kind of challenge, particularly when it came to special effects and the demands of the script. A glimpse of the film, featuring a rather startling prosthetic head, was enough to get people talking online.
“I like all the makeup effects. I like something different,” she says. “I think Polong is more challenging in terms of the special effects and the reading of things, but it’s fine. I love it.”
HUNTI LANAK, Dress
HUNTI LANAK, Dress
For Mimi, the appeal of acting lies in the chance to become someone else, if only for a little while. Every character offers a different perspective, a new set of emotions, and an opportunity to understand people a little better. “Every single project that I’ve done always gives me something—a new breath of life,” she says. “Every character that I play teaches and gives me more understanding about people, about humans.” It is this constant process of learning that keeps her interested.
The nerves haven’t entirely disappeared either. She still gets anxious before stepping on stage, though she says it’s nowhere near what it used to be. What’s changed is familiarity—after ten years in the industry, she knows enough people now that a set feels less like unfamiliar territory and more like a room full of people she’s already comfortable with. Her method for managing what nerves remain is refreshingly unglamorous: she just talks to everyone. Say hello. Makes people feel at ease, on the theory that their comfort tends to loop back around into her own.
On Her Own Terms
That same instinct—make peace with things rather than fight them—is how she’s dealt with the more uncomfortable parts of fame. She admits the tabloid attention caught her off guard early in her career, but she’s long since stopped engaging with it. “I don’t read about myself anymore,” she tells us. “I always present my work. My work is always number one.” She has also found inspiration in those who have spent years in the industry while remaining relevant and, above all, being humble. It is a quality she hopes to carry with her, staying grounded as she grows in her own career.
When it comes to her personal life, Mimi has become more selective about what she chooses to share. She prefers to keep certain things to herself, drawing a line between the person the public sees and the life she lives away from the cameras. It is a boundary she has grown increasingly comfortable with. Perhaps that comfort has something to do with the person she has become in her thirties. “When I was 20, I always asked for people’s decisions,” she says. “But in my 30s, I always know what I want. I’m very confident in myself, and I really, really enjoy my 30s.”
She has always been someone who prefers to make her own decisions, even if that means making mistakes along the way. She doesn’t like being controlled, and she is not particularly interested in living by someone else’s expectations. For Mimi, mistakes are part of the deal.
“I like to make mistakes because from mistakes, I can learn to grow,” she says.
Forgiving herself, however, is a process that depends on the situation. Still, she believes it is something everyone must learn to do. There is always another day, another opportunity to try again, to work harder, to learn something new.
Love and Other Turns
That outlook has perhaps never been more meaningful than it is now. One of the biggest plot twists in her life, she tells us, has been her marriage to fellow actor Syafiq Kyle. The two first met in 2016, eventually making their relationship public around 2019 or 2020. There was a brief separation along the way, but they found their way back to each other, eventually tying the knot last year and stepping into a new chapter together.
Before marriage, Mimi had been preoccupied with work. She had assumed that settling down might mean giving up some of the things she wanted to do. Instead, she has found that having a partner who is also her best friend has opened up more room to explore, both personally and professionally.
“My life changed a lot when I got married. It’s better and more beautiful now,” she says. “I wish I could have done it earlier.” For Mimi, “love should be something that makes you be a better person,” she says. “Love is not something that makes you feel less. So anything that makes you feel better, that is love.” The couple had always wanted children, even before they got married, and are now trying for their own. Looking back, she seems to have discovered that some of life’s most unexpected turns can lead somewhere rather lovely.
You can hear the fondness in the way she speaks about Syafiq. Her favourite thing about him, she says, is his soft heart, his kindness, and the way he supports her. When it comes to acting, the two have plenty to talk about. Their lives have long revolved around the film industry, and now they are beginning to explore new territory together. Syafiq has started his production company, Indigo Films, while Mimi has begun writing her own scripts. For an actress who has spent years in front of the camera, the prospect of stepping behind it brings a different kind of excitement. “Being behind the screen is like a new feeling, a new experience that I can learn,” she says.
There is more she wants to discover, too. If she ever gets the chance to continue her studies, cinematography would be her subject of choice. She might consider a short course, perhaps lasting three to six months, rather than committing to a lengthy programme. It is another reminder that, for Mimi, the learning never really stops.
Outside of work and marriage, she’s recently taken up horse riding and is aiming to compete in equestrian events next year. It’s the only new pursuit she’s letting herself take on right now, deliberately, because she knows the discipline demands full attention. “You have to give full attention, the energy and everything,” she says. “I love horses.”
FIZIWOO, Dress
On Grief
This year has also brought her one of its harder chapters—the loss of her brother. She doesn’t try to tidy up how that feels. “Grief is something no one can ever tell you how it feels,” she says. “It feels like he’s still around, but at the same time I miss him so much.” She holds onto the belief that he’s somewhere better now, alongside the sadness rather than instead of it, and she’s fairly candid that pain, however unwelcome, tends to leave something behind—a push to be better, to try harder, to give more. “When you are happy, you’re not thinking about what’s going to happen tomorrow,” she says. “But when you are in pain, you think more and feel more and want to fix it more.”
On the harder days, her coping mechanisms stay simple: a film, a book, or a bit of space to think things through before coming back to whatever needs facing. She’s currently working through Matthew McConaughey’s Greenlights, which she describes as unrelentingly positive—fitting, for someone who treats reading as a kind of escape hatch. “Books always make me travel to another place,” she says.
Still Becoming
And when it comes to looking after herself, Mimi has always believed in making room for a little indulgence. She has been treating herself since her single days, and marriage, as she puts it, has simply doubled the surprises. “I always want to treat myself like how I want to treat others, how I want people to treat me,” she says. “I treat myself first.”
It is a fitting note to end on. After all, adventure does not always have to mean chasing the next big thing. For Mimi, the next chapter is already taking shape. There are films on the way, and a life that continues to unfold beyond the screen. She may not know exactly what comes next, but after 10 years in the industry and a year of personal highs and lows, she seems more than ready to find out. And if there is one thing she has learned along the way, it is that every twist, no matter how unexpected, has something to offer.
Photography: Wee Yang
Creative Direction: Ian Loh
Styling: Joseph Cheng
Art Direction: Nadia Aswardy
Makeup: Sahir Sabri
Hair: Ckay Liow
Photography Assistant: Carl
Styling Assistants: Lorraine Chai, Yang Sophia Firuz
Videography: Ng Joe Ee
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