Guess What? Ira Riswana

First she won a TV drama award at 19. Then she went out with someone 11 years older than herself. A year later, she shaved her head and posed with her new, bald boyfriend for local print media.

Critics said that Ira Riswana, 21, had shaved her head for the publicity. They were wrong.

"A year ago, doctors told me the arteries in my brain were clogged. It became a necessity ... they had to conduct so many tests. I was hospitalized for 10 days at one time," Ira said.

"The worst part was that I had already shot 45 percent of Cinta Di Awal 30 (TV drama Love Begins at 30). The director was good enough to shrug it (the baldness) off."

Noted editor of films and TV dramas Karsono Hadi did more than that. He not only shrugged it off, he made changes to the script for Ira.

In the 20-episode TV drama to be aired Monday to Friday on Indosiar beginning May. 4, Ira plays a troubled tomboy who is daughter of a four-time divorcee.

About acting, she said she preferred character roles.

"I would prefer playing a beggar or a maimed person ... I'm not into glamor roles."

While her acting schedule is booked solid, she has put her studies to earn a law degree on hold.

"I should be in my fourth semester (at Pancasila University, Lenteng Agung, South Jakarta). But I can only do one thing at a time."

Ira was winner of the 1996 Vidia trophy of the Indonesian Sinetron (TV serials) Festival for best comedy actress for her role in Angkot Haji Imron (Haj Imron's Minibus), a story about a girl who disguises herself as a man to live up to the world's expectations of her. (ylt)