“There was this Chinese film series I watched when I was younger. It was called Tiny Times. I was captivated by the characters, who always took risks and had adventures. They were such good companions; just seeing them interact on the screen felt like I was interacting with them. I thought, “That would be a great feeling to give to other people.” My family moved around a lot between Shanghai and California for my parents’ work. I moved to the U.S. — first to Los Angeles, then to Palo Alto — with my dad and stepmom in sixth grade. Classmates would tell me, “Kelly, you speak with an accent.” I developed a lot of anxiety around speaking English in front of people.  When I feel a lot of fear towards something, I always gravitate towards it. So I decided to take an intro to drama class. It was really fun, but I was still terrified. Nothing in the world challenges me like acting does. When I got to UC Berkeley, I was planning on majoring in English and was like, “Oh, I’ll just take an ac...