Who is Hana Roanne? We speak to three people: one from her past, one in her present, and one in her future, to determine if one truly changes, or growth is inevitable.
Act 1: The Past—The Becoming of Her
Photographed by Hana Roanne
The year is 2015, and our heroine is still known as Roanne Woo. This is where Momo, a student of Japanese descent, meets our heroine in an international school located in a small town in Perak—Kampar. Even before they exchanged their first words, Momo already knew who she was. “She radiated a confidence that felt effortless. It was an aura that drew people in,” Momo tells GRAZIA Malaysia. “I remember she walked—strutted, actually—through the hallways and cafeteria in our school. She’s always been that girl. I would hear her before I see her, either through her contagious laughter or the laughter of her friends surrounding her.”
It wasn’t long before Momo became part of the group of friends contributing to the laughter that rang throughout campus. Roanne’s orbit was welcoming, especially to a foreign student miles away from home. Even in the past, our heroine had an innate charm that pulled people towards her. “You know how when you’re in your teens, your brain is still figuring things out, and you go through all sorts of mentally draining stuff? Just being near her made everything feel lighter, simpler, and fun—even when we were talking about really heavy or depressing things,” Momo reminisces. “Her silly jokes, performed with full-on arm flails and ridiculous facial expressions, never failed to make me laugh. She has a way of making you feel connected to her, even if you’ve just met. Before long, she became someone I could always count on.”
The urge to create had long been within Roanne, even back then. Like the past, present, and future versions of her, this urge came hand in hand with the desire to make the entire experience better with her friends. Momo attests to this, telling us that their bond grew from the weekend photo shoots they used to do at the boarding house. Every few weeks, Roanne would feel the urge to create—and the two of them would dive into their little productions head-on. This energy and enthusiasm make even other people want to bring her vision to life. “She’s truly one of a kind,” gushes Momo. “Usually, when you see the same scenery every day, it’s easy for it to get boring. But she’s always finding art and little sparks of ideas in the most ordinary things.”
When most people speak of confidence, they often only think of self-confidence. With our heroine, it’s different. Her confidence is a light that shines on others, enabling them to believe that they, too, possess the same confidence within themselves. “She’s not only confident in herself—she’s confident in me, and everyone she works with, and that makes you believe that you can do anything too.”
From the past to the present, Momo has seen our heroine grow. Roanne remains Roanne: fiercely passionate, weird, and endlessly talented. While she has always been expressive with her feelings, Momo notices that she’s opening herself more to receiving and embracing love from other people. “She doesn’t shy away from the love people give her now, and instead, she takes it in, feels it, and shares it back to the world. Having an open heart and letting yourself feel the love and care people give you isn’t always easy, and it can make you feel vulnerable, especially in this digital age. But watching Roanne do it, while still being her creative, bold, honest self, is inspiring to me.”
“I always knew that she would be a star in one way or the other, whether as a photographer, director, actor, model, or some yet-to-be-discovered talent of hers. Even back then, it was obvious she was going to do something remarkable; she’s always been a star girl.”
Act 2: The Present—Her As She Presents Herself
Photographed by Chuan Looi
In the present, she has reinvented herself as Hana Roanne. It is the name her friend Nia Atasha has christened her: beginning as an inside joke, but eventually stuck around till it embodied her present personality. Hana itself is multifaceted, transcending cultures and languages—in Japanese (花/華) it’s a flower, in Korean (하나) it means one, in Arabic (هناء) it signifies bliss or happiness, in Kurdish (هانا) it’s hope, in Māori it represents shining, glowing, giving love, or is a form of Hannah, and in Albanian it means moon. It is altogether simple, playful, yet meaningful.
But make no mistake—Hana Roanne is not an alter ego. She is still the same heroine as she was in the past, and perhaps in the future. For that, we speak to Nia for her side of the story on our heroine in the present. Friends for the past five years, it was Nia who saw our heroine at a professional level—but like Momo, she was quickly pulled into Hana Roanne’s orbit. “I remember thinking to myself, ah, this girl is weird and funny the first time we met,” Nia shares. Despite meeting for the first time at a campaign shoot as models, Hana Roanne began talking to her and cracked jokes as though they’d been friends forever. It was her personality that made it so easy to remember her even after the shoot.
As with anyone circling our heroine’s orbit, Nia was eventually pulled back in a year later. By chance, she was headed to the Bucheon Film Festival in Seoul, and Nia found out that Hana Roanne was also headed there. “We shared a room throughout the trip and really bonded in Seoul. I guess you could say we are…seoulmates…”
We can see why the two are friends.
However, as with any relationship, love and hate run parallel. “Her tendency to run away from her problems drives me absolutely crazy!” raves Nia. “But I also love this trait of hers, because what do you mean you’re going to China to learn Chinese opera to cope with your problems? I love how she’s running away, but also running headfirst into new adventures.” Creativity in everything she pursues is a constant factor in why people in our heroine’s past and present love her. Nia imagines Hana Roanne must have been either a fun, lively, and energetic kid in her past—or a really shy one. Two things can be true at once, and Nia isn’t too far off with her predictions.
“Her future is bright. She’s so talented. I’m sure she’s going to direct a cool movie or win an award for best actress, or maybe even have an exhibition for her photography work,” says Nia. And so, we head to Act 3.
Act 3: The Future—Her In Her Dream Life
Photographed by Amani Azlin
The stage is set 10 years in the future. Our heroine is living her dream life—but what does that mean to her? Things are different now. She has grown, but growth is not dramatic. It is altogether the slowest development and the quickest, particularly when she reflects on the past decade, from present to future. “I see myself every day. The same face, same body, same voice. Nothing dramatic. And yet, when I look at old photos, I catch myself thinking, who is that girl? She looks like me, but she doesn’t feel like me. Growth is strange like that. When life moves this fast, it’s hard to step back and measure change while you’re still living inside it,” our heroine tells us.
Learning how to let go has been her biggest challenge and lesson—but it’s how she’s grown. She has always struggled to accept reality as it is, rather than how she wished it could be. Her past was riddled with anxiety. Small things spiralled into panic attacks and seizures; she thought it was embarrassing, and she masked it by being loud, funny, and overly energetic. Things are different now. She doesn’t feel the need to be loud or hide behind anything. She’s calmer and better at managing her anxiety. “When I look at myself today, I see someone who has learned to let go, accept that it has happened, and focus on what’s ahead,” she says. “I’m less hateful toward myself. Less cruel in my own head. I’ve grown into someone who shows up for herself, someone who loves herself a little more. Someone her family worries less about. Someone who’s okay with being anxious sometimes, but also more hopeful about the future.”
Our heroine in the future lives in a landed house—her own little world. There’s a cosy tea room where she can sit for hours with a cup of jujube tea, scribbling ideas or hosting friends for slow afternoons. There’s a cinema room where she screens films she’s working on, or to simply lose herself in the classics, salted popcorn in hand. There is a studio corner filled with paints, sketchbooks, cameras, and all the tools she needs to experiment and create. And out back, a fazenda where she grows herbs and flowers. It’s where she occasionally wanders just to clear her mind.
But she also imagines herself having multiple spaces in different countries; little creative homes she can drop into, where friends and family can stay whenever they want to. It speaks to her restlessness—her need to move, explore, see new things, meet new people, and work in different environments. Home, to her, isn’t just walls or a roof. It’s the freedom to keep discovering, creating, and staying curious.
The right home is wherever I feel inspired, connected, and alive—and that’s the kind of life and space I’ve always wanted.
An average day in her future dream life depends on the city she wakes up in. Some days she’s directing a film in one city; other days she’s acting in a different country. Mornings are rushed, flitting between meetings for a film she’s directing, on-set afternoons in another project halfway across the world, and evenings getting ready to attend a premiere for a film she both directed and acted in.
But some days, she does nothing. She sips on tea in the little art teahouse she built. It’s her favourite place to exist within. In her art teahouse, there is life forming through creativity: workshops, live music, book clubs, film screenings, and more. People come in, they make things, laugh, and spill tea. It’s more alive than she could ever imagine.
Speaking of people, she still runs in the same circle she has in her present. “I’d still want the same kind of people in my life—people who feel safe, grounded, and real,” our heroine says. “They’re the ones I trust to give me a reality check when I need it, but who never make me feel small or incapable. People who challenge me without tearing me down. And people who know how to have fun.”
As someone who lives and breathes creativity, her personal and professional life often overlaps. 10 years in the future, our heroine is now more daring, curious, and present when working with people. Where she was previously focused on doing things “right” rather than really listening and establishing a close collaboration with other parties, she now feels more at ease and is better at communicating her ideas clearly, while staying open to different perspectives. Creative blocks are no longer a thing to be afraid of, but a chance to work through them with her team. “I still approach every project as if I know nothing at all, and that curiosity creates space for conversation. It invites people to share ideas, and more often than not, leads to discoveries none of us would have made alone,” she explains.
But is future her content in her dream life? Not quite. She doesn’t believe she has achieved true contentment, but that’s okay. In fact, she’s genuinely grateful for all that she’s achieved. “There are many parts of my life that make me feel fulfilled and thankful,” she remarks. But, we ask, doesn’t that sound like contentment after all?
“Contentment, to me, feels like a very final word. I’m still growing, moving, and working towards becoming a better version of myself. A better friend, a better daughter, a better artist. That restlessness somehow doesn’t feel heavy, but more purposeful…” she mulls. “I also find the idea of content interesting in the world we live in now. We have content creators, but are they actually content? And what are we really creating that brings people contentment? I ask myself this often. Even if my dream of making a feature film that wins Best Picture at major film festivals comes true, I’m not sure it would bring complete contentment. It’s a difficult question to answer. Maybe one I’m not meant to answer just yet.”
Photography: Hana Roanne (Act 1), Chuan Looi (Act 2), Amani Azlin (Act 3)
Creative Direction: Ian Loh
Styling: Joseph Cheng
Art Direction: Nadia Aswardy
Hair: Cody Chua
Makeup: Cat Yong
Photography Assistants: Zi Xin, Eugene Teoh (Act 2); Azuan (Act 3)
Styling Assistants: Lorraine Chai, Maryssa Helmi
READ MORE