He’s a familiar voice on Chinese radio station Yes 933, but Zhu Zeliang will soon be gracing our screens as well. The 27-year-old local radio DJ is set to act in The Little Nyonya spinoff Emerald Hill, playing the grandson to Peranakan matriarch Liu Xiuniang (Zoe Tay) and the child of her third son Zhang Jinquan (Romeo Tan). “I play the role of Zhang Yaoliang who is indecisive and blindly follows the orders of his older brother, Zhang Yaoguang (played by Herman Keh), which is the complete opposite of who I really am,” Zeliang told AsiaOne in a recent interview. Zeliang told us that, despite being a radio DJ since winning The Sound Makers 2016, he has “always had the passion for acting”, having participated in Chinese Drama Clubs from primary school to polytechnic. He also shared how he snagged the role: “I went through an audition, just like everyone else. I was given a few paragraphs of dialogue to prepare beforehand, but I honestly did not know how to prepare for a proper audition. “As a result, I was one of the very few people who went for the audition in plain T-shirt and shorts, while the more experienced artistes were dressed for their roles already for the audition (e.g. in suit and tie, cheongsam).” They took turns to act out the roles they were auditioning for and Zeliang said that “the whole process went by in a flash”. “But I have to admit that it was rather nerve-wracking to be in a room filled with writers and more experienced actors,” he added. Despite getting a role in a major drama, Zeliang is determined not to let “the expectations and nerves get to” him. Instead, he’ll “treat it as any other character that I’d need to prepare for and just enjoy this learning opportunity.” Zeliang was in Taiwan on an acting exchange alongside other young actors when he was informed that he got the role for Emerald Hill. Accompanying them was veteran actor Chan Hanwei, who considers it his “task and responsibility” as a senior to “cultivate new actors”.