This December, Methika Jiranorraphat, known to fans simply as Jane, fronts our cover as Icon of the Year, closing out a breakout 2025. In this year alone, she’s gone from a familiar name to a standout force, leading a hit Netflix series that resonated well beyond Thailand, and collecting major awards along the way.
What stays with you is the way she’s handled the acceleration. Jane has spent the year gravitating toward emotionally nuanced roles, while remaining impressively steady in the middle of it all. The result is something you don’t often see: an actress whose world has suddenly expanded, yet who still walks into a room with the composure of someone just getting started.
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If one project crystallised her international breakthrough, it was ‘Mad Unicorn.’ The Netflix hit introduced her to a much wider audience, quickly climbing the streaming charts and even reaching the global top five among non-English series. Jane remembers the moment the impact of ‘Mad Unicorn’ really sank in, when she received a major award for her performance. ‘I think my biggest moment is when I got the Spotlight of the Year award for Mad Unicorn,’ she recalls. ‘This was my first series that really made people recognise me globally.’
To Jane, that recognition felt like more than just a brief burst of attention – it landed with real meaning. It marked a key inflection in her journey, carrying her from a homegrown favourite to an actress now reaching audiences everywhere. What began as support at home had widened into something undeniably international, and Jane could tell this wasn’t a passing wave – it was the start of a different rhythm, with the world now paying attention.
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Part of what made 2025 feel so expansive is that Jane didn’t deliver just one defining role. She delivered two, and they couldn’t be more different. In ‘Mad Unicorn,’ she plays Xiao Yu, an operations strategist navigating a cut-throat startup world. In ‘Love Design,’ she becomes Rin, a free-spirited architect who refuses to be owned by any firm. Jane recognises herself in both. ‘With Xiao Yu, I’m brave about deciding what I want in life,’ she explains. ‘And with Rin, I’m very free-spirited.’
Together, the pair reads like a complete portrait. Both characters circle ambition, but they move toward it differently: Xiao Yu holds her ground with discipline, while Rin follows her own compass, refusing to shrink herself for anyone else’s blueprint. Watching Jane inhabit both, you start to see the connecting thread in her choices this year. She’s drawn to women who shape the room they’re in, even when the stakes are personal. In that sense, these two roles aren’t a contradiction at all. They’re proof of range, and a glimpse of where she goes next.
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Where ‘Mad Unicorn’ proved Jane’s range, Love Design shows what happens when she finds her right counterpart. Opposite Supassara ‘Kao’ Thanachat, our August 2025 cover star, the series is carried by their paired presence – their on-screen partnership feeling natural, unforced, and genuinely magnetic.
Jane describes their connection simply. ‘Maybe it’s communication. We’re really similar in personality,’ she says. ‘We’re both introverted and we like a lot of the same things.’ She laughs that they often end up dressing alike. ‘We sync in a way. It just comes naturally.’
That rapport matters because ‘Love Design’ thrives in the in-between moments. A look held a fraction longer, a pause that carries meaning, emotion that doesn’t need to raise its voice. With Jane and Kao, their chemistry reads as something you can feel, and it nudges the series beyond romance into something richer: two women holding their own, then discovering the friction and tenderness in choosing each other anyway.
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Zoom out, and Jane sees her year as part of something bigger. In the last few years, Thai stories have proven they can travel, and not only within niche audiences. She believes the next step isn’t about reshaping Thai creators into something else, but backing what’s already there with more confidence. ‘Just keep being ourselves, being free,’ she says. ‘We do whatever we want and I think everything that goes out to the world, people know it.’ Her point is simple: what’s real connects. ‘Just be ourselves,’ she adds. ‘I think it will go even more global’
For Jane, the clearer the perspective, the wider it can reach. It’s the same approach that’s guided her own year: choosing roles with genuine emotional weight, staying grounded in who she is, and letting the work speak across borders.
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She also made a personal shift public, changing her name from Ramida to Methika. ‘Actually, I changed it a long time ago, I just never announced it properly,’ she says. Hearing it out loud took some time to settle. ‘At first, I wasn’t used to it. But lately people call me by my new name and I feel like, oh, I’m getting used to it.’
A name, after all, is what the world reaches for first, and choosing what you answer to can feel like choosing what you carry forward. For Jane, the decision was tied to belief. ‘I really believe in luck,’ she explains. ‘I trust in that kind of thinking, so I felt like it would help a little.’
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For someone whose year has been this pivotal, Jane still talks like she’s warming up — like the best is still ahead. She’s already had her chapter in music, but she admits she’s open to returning to it in a new way, if the timing feels right. Right now, though, she’s ‘really in love with acting,’ and her focus is sharpening toward film and roles that demand more. ‘I want to try movies in different genres,’ she says, ‘and take on harder roles in the future.’
She’s especially drawn to characters that push her into unfamiliar territory. ‘I really want to try a psychopath kind of role, something with a personality disorder,’ she says. ‘I feel like I have nine personalities in me, so I want to try.’ It’s the clearest window into how she thinks about acting. She’s looking for parts that let her step far outside of herself, instead of leaning on what audiences already adore. It’s the same approach that’s carried her through this year: choosing roles that unsettle her slightly, yet trusting herself to inhabit them.
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When we ask what she’d say to young creatives trying to find their footing, Jane doesn’t romanticise it. She keeps it practical, brave, and clear-eyed. ‘Do whatever you want,’ she says. ‘Just do good things, okay? And be brave.’
On social media, her advice is to stop treating it like a scorecard. ‘Just post what you want, and keep doing it every day,’ she says. ‘Make it part of your routine, but keep it fun.’ She’s direct about the mindset, too. ‘I don’t want people to get too stressed about social media,’ she adds. ‘Just enjoy it, and I think it will naturally get better.’
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It’s advice that fits the way she operates: consistent without being performative, ambitious without making it heavy. Keep showing up, stay curious, hold your point of view, and let progress come from practice instead of self-pressure. Even in a year where her world has expanded, she still talks like someone playing the long game.
Catherine Pun
A Hong Kong native with Filipino-Chinese roots, Catherine infuses every part of her life with zest, whether she’s belting out karaoke tunes or exploring off-the-beaten-path destinations. Her downtime often includes unwinding with Netflix and indulging in a 10-step skincare routine. As the Editorial Director of Friday Club., Catherine brings her wealth of experience from major publishing houses, where she refined her craft and even authored a book. Her sharp editorial insight makes her a dynamic force, always on the lookout for the next compelling narrative.
