BACK in April 2008, R.AGE interviewed a certain Izyan Alirahman aka Kokokaina, a relatively unknown singer-songwriter.

The girl from Miri, Sarawak, is now based in New York with a highly-successful eponymous debut album that everybody's talking about. Of course, you'd all know her better by her current stage name, Zee Avi.

R.AGE has always been about youth, and the things that they do. We wanted to shout out to everyone how talented and interesting young people are. We wanted to tell the stories of youth personalities, and what drives and inspires them.

In the last three years, we have featured many young people out there doing their own thing.

Since we are embarking on a new chapter, we decided that it was only fitting that we check back with some of R.AGE's personalities to report on how far they have come.

Ezuan Sulaini (Iz), 26
Singer

Iz made a name for himself as a finalist on 8TV’s One In A Million Season 2, and he didn't stop there. As soon as he left the show, he sought out a recording studio and got straight to work.

Before the show had even ended, he had released his first single Gonna Be Alright, a song with a positive message about never giving up and taking failure as a challenge.

Ezuan Sulaini

Right about the time when he began performing all over the country, he swung by R.AGE to talk about his determination to pursue a career in showbiz.

It has been almost exactly a year since we featured Iz on our cover, and in that time he says he has grown professionally and as a person.

"I am now more informed on the current climate in the local music industry compared to when I first started. Many want you to hand your trust to them. I don't think trust can just be handed, as I reckon it needs to be earned. I guess I am more guarded and careful about the things I say and the people I meet now," says Iz.

"After the release of my debut EP in 2008, I've done a couple of endorsements, but at the moment I am working mostly on my full studio album which will be released in an unconventional format. The first single will be called A.L.O.N.E, and I can't wait to put it out!" says Iz.

This New Year's Eve, he will be performing in India, a huge step for the upcoming star.

Leona Chin Lyweoi, 23
Drifter/Racer/Model

With Leona, at least one stereotype about women is broken - this girl can drive, and boy does she know her cars.

We first met this Selangor native at the finals for the Red Bull Female Driver Search at the Sepang Circuit in 2007 - of 600 hopefuls, she made the final cut to take part in the Merdeka Millenium Endurance Race 2008 and the Sepang 1000km race in June 2009.

Despite being well known as a racer, Leona's first love is drifting.

Leona Chin Lyweoi

Since her debut in R.AGE and subsequently, countless other publications, Leona has made a name for herself. "I have in fact participated in several events this year from go kart, track racing, drifting, autokhana or autocross, and rally," explains Leona.

"Also, I had a chance to be in a Yokohama Drifting event in June; I was the only lady out of the five drifters they selected for the drift demo."

Having great looks and being a genuinely nice person has also helped boost Leona’s stature as a local personality - shortly after her racing debut she was chosen to become the ambassador for the Puma Motorsports division (four wheels category).

Just last week, she made an appearance at Mines Resort City as an ambassador for MIREX 09 (Malaysian International Road Safety Exhibition 2009).

"My career has been great. I've been working in an advanced driving academy for the past year and learned alot about safety driving, racing aspects and also advanced driving techniques to help in my motorsport passion," says Leona who regularly appears in racing and motorsports events.

Prema Yin, 23
Singer/model

In 2004, Prema Yin Ranee Kali Kavandan took home the top prize in Who Will Win: Malaysian Top Star singing competition aired on ntv7.

A year later she talked to R.AGE about writing songs, coping with college work and having famous brothers (hockey players Logan Raj and Keevan Raj).

This year, she launched her first EP after years of paying her dues singing in clubs and playing indie gigs in the underground scene.

"The launch of my first EP and video clip for my Bahasa Malaysia single, Eyo Eyo recently was truly an amazing and memorable day. Plus, the fact that my song, the Malay version of Eyo Eyo got played on N-Joy Radio, one of Germany's biggest radio station was simply overwhelming for me," says Prema.

Prema Yin

At the moment, she is promoting the Bahasa Malaysia and English versions of Eyo Eyo and is prepping for shows in December, with her band MON9.

Television acting roles are also in the works for Prema, who is currently recording more music and working on new material.

Yuna, 24
Recording artiste

It was June last year when a friend asked why R.AGE hadn't featured Yuna yet. Some research led us to her YouTube recording and an interview with the indie singer/songwriter.

The "accidental artiste" stumbled into the world of entertainment before she even knew she wanted to become a performer.

In our interview she said, "A friend even had my name printed on the flyers for a gig before I even fully agreed to play."

Since then, she has performed many local gigs, as well as in Singapore and London.

Yuna

"I will be performing in Korea in December. And it's amazing I get to do all that not being signed to any label, and manage everything with my own company. I've become wiser in managing my music career, in a way," says Yuna.

Yuna has gone from being an anonymous YouTube artiste to having people recognise her in restaurants, to dealing with negative press.

"I got accused for a lot of things - including lying to the media, which wasn't true, and being criticised for that a lot. From that, I've learned that I have to be careful, that I can't really trust anyone, and trying to please everyone was not going to get me anywhere."

At the moment Yuna is enjoying her career, and looks forward to coming up with new, great songs her fans will love.

Adrian Jalaludin, 23
TV host/Actor

A lot has happened, both profesionally and personally, in Adrian Jalaludin's life since his first interview with R.AGE in July last year. Adrian, 24, who was busy hosting Motorsports@Petronas for ESPN, landed another hosting gig for RTM2 titled Breakfast On The Move.

"The premise of the show was for me to travel by bicycle through the off-beaten tracks in Peninsular Malaysia tasting various breakfast dishes and visiting forgotten or unknown historical and cultural sites," he says.

The show is now in its third season, and discussion for the fourth and fifth seasons are underway.

Besides hosting, Adrian has also dabbled into acting in Singapore, where he completed filming a 14-episode drama tentatively titled Cafe 13.

"It's about a group of young adults who hang out and investigate paranormal, strange and downright creepy happenings in Singapore. It was a blast shooting my first TV series and I intend to continue acting," says Adrian.

Adrian Jalaludin

He is also working on getting himself back into shape after tearing a knee ligament during a futsal game.

"I have to get my knee back to tip-top condition before I can tackle new seasons of Breakfast On The Move. I am also heading back to Singapore, hopefully to try and snag more acting gigs."

Grace Oon, 21
Student/Model

When R.AGE interviewed Grace Oon in early 2008, she was fresh from participating in Miss Malaysia/World 2007. Today, the beauty with brains is pursuing a double degree in Communication and Psychology. She even got into the Dean's list for acquiring a cumulative grade point average of 3.80 and will be receiving an award for Academic Excellence from United States’ Upper Iowa University in December.

But that doesn’t mean she’s strayed off her pet subject – fashion.

"I've grown and learnt so much within these past two years. I started contributing fashion-related articles to Tongue In Chic, a local fashion blog. I'm assigned to cover fashion shows and interview people with fashion backgrounds. Fashion is a subject I always hold close to my heart," she says.

One of Grace's recent ventures is competing in Modelle Magazine Beauty 50 contest.

"My first shoot with them was held in Batu Caves, and the steps were really steep. We had to hold our poses on slippery edges and also take care of the clothes so that they don’t tear or stain," she adds.

Apart from that, Grace also organises bazaars around Petaling Jaya under her boyfriend’s company.

Grace Oon

Jay Lim, 26
Design director

"Thinking back of that (first) interview I had with R.AGE in 2007 kind of reminds me of how much have happened – good ones and bad. The last time we met, I was very much into finding my destiny. Designing T-shirt was just something I did during my pastime since I had to work to make ends meet," says Jay.

A few weeks after R.AGE's interview with him in 2008, Jay decided to take a different path. He quit his day job, accepted more freelance offers, and set up his own business.

"Tsubaki Studio is now my bread and butter. Together with my partner, Vivian Toh, we manage the studio and work hard to get more clients, experience and knowledge," says Jay.

"We conceptualise and design visual communications for our clients, and the response has been good. We're looking forward to expanding our business into Singapore."

Besides keeping busy with studio work, Jay also runs the JouJou & Shugi Creative Flea Market that operates in Petaling Jaya.

"I will also be lecturing at a design college from January next year. I will also continue to develop Miss Hua (his T-shirt design line) and hopefully you'll be looking at something cute and refreshing next year."

Ask Me Again
Indie band

Jay Lim

Ask Me Again has given up on music competitions since R.AGE interviewed the band members in 2007. They had a slight change in line-up, and have recently released their debut album.

"The band has not only grown in years, but also musically. Just like any other band, our music has developed and in our opinion, it has evolved positively. We are more comfortable with our instruments and have an in depth view of how we intend our sound to be," says bassist Calvin Krishnan, 20. Others in the band are vocalist Wan Hameerudin Zawawi, 19, guitarists Shiresh Anthony, 20, and Michael Soyza, 19, and drummer Shanjeev Reddy, 22.

"We have just released our debut mini-album titled A Step Back Forward. It consists of seven songs, all of which were written and produced by the band," adds Calvin.

Calvin Lau, 25
Gemologist/owner of Lavin NY

When R.AGE did an article/video on then 24-year-old diamond grading expert Calvin Lau back in August 2008, we were seriously envious because he works with high grade diamonds every day. He's literally surrounded by them, and has been doing so since he was a kid.

The fact is, Calvin was already one of the youngest students to enrol (and graduate) at the renowned Gemologist Institute of America, and had set up two jewellery stores of his own – Lavin NY in New York and Petaling Jaya, Selangor – before we even interviewed him.

"Being featured helped a lot! It was brilliant to be in the papers – very good publicity," said Calvin, whose local business now includes clients from Singapore, while his outlet in New York is still going strong.

Ask Me Again

"We're still doing the same things at Lavin NY. We’ve always designed our own jewellry, but these days we've been selling a lot of loose stones. We're planning to start a gemology course, which should be happening in less than year."

Jane Tan, 24
Model/actress

In less than two years, Jane Tan has gone from being an accountancy student spotted at a TV model audition to bagging the second runner-up spot in the Miss Astro Chinese International beauty pageant this year.

Jane was shopping with some friends when they saw auditions taking place for TV game show Deal Or No Deal, and they encouraged her to give it a try.

"At the time, I had never done any modelling before. In fact, I was just a regular girl who barely even knew how to do my own make-up," Jane told us back in April 2008 when we interviewed her. Since then, Jane's career has slowly taken off, culminating in her success at the pageant.

"Before I joined the pageant, I acted in a couple of drama series for 8TV and Ntv7. I also did some TV commercials. A lot of people now call me the 'Nescafe girl'!"

Calvin Lau

David Lai, 25
Mentalist

When we first interviewed David Lai in early 2007, he was an engineering student who had a side business called Magical Dating, where he would perform magic routines for couples on romantic dates.

"I had to make an important decision on whether or not to go full time in magic. So, instead of an engineering job for one of the best companies in oil and gas, I went into the entertainment industry. It took a lot of guts to make that final decision, and so far it's paying off really well," says David.

Upon graduation, he decided to plunge head-on into the world of Mentalism, and hasn't looked back since - every so often he updates his Facebook page with pictures from the countries his career has taken him to.

"Fantastic is an understatement really," says David. "I've been having the time of my life! I've been focusing more on shows overseas, and have been hitting the Middle East and Europe frequently. I've spent more time abroad than home in the past 11 months."

His earnings have quadrupled thanks to currency exchange, and more importantly, he is still having fun doing his job.

Jane Tan

Apart from being fully booked for jobs until March 2010, David is in the midst of setting up a new company with a magician friend from Britain, and has a 52-episode English magic segment for local TV planned.

Tey Cindy, 22
Celebrity blogger/model

Cindy was already an avid blogger when R.AGE first featured her as a participant of the Malaysian Dreamgirl, Malaysia’s first online reality modelling show, in April 2008. She won the competition, which helped lauch her career as a full-time blogger.

"After I was featured in RAGE, my blog hits went up tremendously! I'm able to blog about things like lifestyle, fashion and food, and even happier that I can keep my readers happy," she said.

Cindy is now hoping to settle back into the real world, and to balance her career ambitions with her blogging.

"I'm slowly adapting to living the normal life. I mean, you wake up, do the nine-to-five thing, spend time with family and friends on weekends, etc. I miss the freedom I had as a full-time blogger, but I'm learning a lot now, and I hope to continue blogging my life away as readers grow with me," she said.

Yeo Wai Tat, 30
Malaysian Association of Dodgeball secretary-general

When Yeo Wai Tat first contacted R.AGE in June 2008, he was an events management company account executive working to develop a college dodgeball community on the side.

We were a bit skeptical at first about how big college dodgeball could be, but Wai Tat proved us wrong. He has established the official Malaysian Association of Dodgeball (MAD), and they now have affiliated dodgeball clubs in almost every major private college in the Klang Valley.

"We've organised several dodgeball events this year, and I think the sport’s youthful nature and the positive values it promotes really helped as we were able to attract support from the private and government sectors.

"Next year will be exciting, because MAD will be conducting a nationwide dodgeball championship, the second season of the Campus Dodgeball League, and two international matches with Britain and the United States!" said an excited Wai Tat.