Show Biz Blog

The actress Dralla Aierken, as you probably know by now, started acting in China and began going to auditions in Beijing when she was 19. She threw herself into performing because it was one of those things in life that one cannot NOT do without being unhappy. Even though she had always been interested in the arts since she was very young, especially dancing and painting, acting became her passion and she found that she felt herself most alive and exhilarated when she was on stage or portraying a character.

She went all the way with her passion and earned an MFA at the A.R.T. (the American Repertory Theater) at Harvard and participated in many professional theater productions in Boston and New York. Theater was satisfying for Dralla but she decided to pursue a career in film and TV and moved to Los Angeles and received even more extensive training under the famous screen-acting teacher, Lesly Kahn. Since then, Dralla has been in numerous film projects including, My Mother Thinks I Suck, I Do, Kythera, and most recently, Mrs. Gu and Her Armchair, directed by Eileen Hsu.

Eileen Hsu is an L.A. based film director with many years in the industry. She’s done commercials, music videos and short films, which have been seen on KCET, (a non-commercial educational, independent television station located in Los Angeles, California), and selected to be in countless film festivals in the United States and abroad. Her latest film, Ballot, will debut this summer in New York City at the Asian American International Film Festival, which is the first and longest running festival in the U.S. to showcase for the best in independent Asian and Asian American cinema.

Dralla Airken is one of the stars in Eileen’s Hsu’s film Mrs. Gu and Her Armchair, which focuses on an antique armchair at a garage sale which reveals the life’s journey of its former owner, Mrs. Gu, and her struggles to go from Shanghai to Taiwan and then finally to America. Dralla plays Jean, a strong Asian American woman who enjoys great professional success but is lost at heart. She is vulnerable and strong at the same time, and that is the character’s challenge. Dralla, of course, is such a fine actress that any acting character challenge is only an invitation for her to jump in and play the part better than anyone else. We can’t wait to see Mrs. Gu and Her Armchair!