Rilla Melati Bahri

Rilla Melati Bahri (b. 1973, Singapore–) is a former child star, media personality, entrepreneur, educator, children’s author and emerging translator. She is known for bringing Malay speech and drama programmes to schools in Singapore as well as being the founder of Mini Monsters, an education company that focuses on teaching the Malay language through fun and novel learning strategies.

Early Life and Education
Rilla Melati grew up in what she described as an ordinary middle-class family.¹ Her father is Cikgu Bahri Rajib, a well-known Malay language teacher, scriptwriter and educator in the Singapore Malay community. Her mother became a fulltime housewife after working for a while. She has a brother who is seven years younger than her.

As a young girl, Rilla and her family stayed in her maternal grandparents’ house in Farrer Park. Her grandfather was in the bamboo blind business, supplying the now-iconic black-and-white bamboo blinds for colonial houses. The house later became the gathering place for Sriwana, a Malay performing arts group, which gave Rilla a colourful childhood. She described her growing-up years there as magical.²

Subsequently, Rilla’s family moved to a flat in Ang Mo Kio, where Rilla enrolled in Ang Mo Kio Primary School. She went on to Fuchun Secondary School, before entering Anderson Junior College. With dreams of becoming a “Malay Enid Blyton”,³ Rilla matriculated in the National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences where she majored in Theatre Studies. She was among the inaugural batch of Theatre Studies graduates.⁴ Her honours thesis, “In Search of the Right Formula: The Dilemma of Modern Malay Theatre in Singapore”,⁵ analysed the development of Malay theatre in Singapore, which formed a rare, valuable resource on Malay theatre.⁶

Rilla got married in her twenties but divorced months after she gave birth to her son, Nadim. Many years later, after her son completed his International Baccalaureate Diploma, Rilla obtained a Master’s in Education from Nanyang Technological University – National Institute of Education.⁷

Television Career
Rilla’s career in television began in 1975, when she was only two years old. She went for her first audition as her father was the scriptwriter for a children’s programme. She had routinely performed in children’s TV programmes even before she attended kindergarten, such that she learnt reading on set.⁸ Later as a member of Radio Television Singapore (and subsequently Singapore Broadcasting Corporation)’s Bengkel Kanak-Kanak TV (Children’s Workshop), she frequently appeared in Aksi Mat Yoyo in the 1980s, a Malay educational children’s programme akin to Sesame Street. Rilla also often graced Malay TV shows during Hari Raya.⁹

At the peak of her career, Rilla was known as the co-host for the popular TV talk show Rudy and Rilla, which lasted six seasons on the Malay channel, Suria. Rudy and Rilla discussed various social and legal matters pertinent to the Malay community in Singapore, with the aim of raising the awareness and literacy of the community on these topics.¹⁰

Entrepreneurship and Mini Monster
During her university years, Rilla worked as a tutor with MENDAKI on the weekends, while teaching English speech and drama part-time on weekdays. She was employed by companies that organised English speech and drama workshops in schools, for holiday enrichment programmes and at shopping centre shows.¹¹

This stint made her realise that there was a lack of such programmes for the Malay community at the time. She thus founded her first company, Stagehandz, which provided Malay speech and drama classes. After this partnership ended, she opened a centre-based school called ACTphabets. Two years later, Rilla founded Mini Monsters, originally with television personality Najip Ali as a business partner but he later left. Mini Monsters offers enrichment and educational programmes that aim to foster love for the Malay language.¹²

Children’s Author and Translator
In addition to running Mini Monsters, Rilla is also an accomplished children’s author who has over 20 Malay-language children’s titles under her belt. Prompted by her young son’s request for a new story every day, Rilla decided to venture into writing children’s books. Her father encouraged her to write and publish in Malay due to the lack of local Malay children’s books with context that Singaporean children can relate to.¹³

Her first two titles were the Adil series. Her award-winning book, Si Pencuri Ketawa, went on to become a 13-episode children’s television programme, Taman Mini, which Rilla produced and wrote.¹⁴ She also translated The Crane and the Crab, a children’s book by the late Singapore president S.R. Nathan, into Malay.¹⁵

Selected Works

Siri Aksi Adil
Gajah untuk Adil (2009)¹⁶
Meja Makan Adil (2016)¹⁷
Payung Datuk Adil (2016)¹⁸
Kuih untuk Adil (2018)¹⁹

Baju Melayu Ati (2013)²⁰

Siri Bacaan Awal Kanak-kanak
Ubat untuk Unta (2013)²¹
Harimau yang Hebat (2013)²²
Selipar si Siput (2013)²³
Topi Api (2013)²⁴
Mana Naga? (2013)²⁵
Baju Baharu (2013)²⁶
Raja dan Ratu (2013)²⁷

Siri Bacaan Cekap Kanak-kanak
Kaki Kanan Kaki Kiri (2015)²⁸
Jala Jali (2015)²⁹

Si Pencuri Ketawa: Kisah di Dalam Taman di Persisiran (2017)³⁰
CindeRilla: Sebuah Undangan (2017)³¹
Capal Samsudin (2020)³²
Kisah Raya Ramdan (2021)³³
Songkok Haji Agil (2021)³⁴
Tidak Mahu Degil (2024)³⁵

Awards and Positions
Rilla was honoured with the National Arts Council’s Anugerah Persuratan (Malay Literary Award) for Payung Datuk Adil in 2017, and received the same award for Si Pencuri Ketawa: Kisah di Dalam Taman di Persisiran in 2020/21.³⁶

She is currently a board director of the Singapore Book Council, an executive member of the National Library Board’s Panel for Malay Literary and Content Recommendations Committee³⁷ and a member and the Children’s Museum Singapore Board Advisors.³⁸

To learn more about Rilla’s insights on early literacy in Singapore and the role of bilingual content and family support in nurturing young readers, you can access her oral history interview here.

Author
Miranti Silasudjana

References
1. Rilla Melati, oral history interview by Dr Azhar Ibrahim, 16 February 2024, MP3 audio, Reel/Disc 1 of 5, National Archives of Singapore (accession no. 004981).
2. Rilla Melati, oral history interview, 16 February 2024, Reel/Disc 1 of 5.
3. Rilla Melati, oral history interview, 16 February 2024, Reel/Disc 1 of 5.
4. Koh Yuen Lin, “Mind Your Language,” The AlumNUS, 127 (October–December 2021), https://nus.edu.sg/alumnet/thealumnus/issue-127/people/pursuit-of-excellence/mind-your-language.
5. Rilla Melati Bahri, “In Search of the Right Formula: The Dilemma of Modern Malay Theatre in Singapore,” Honours thesis, National University of Singapore, 1995, https://linc.nus.edu.sg/record=b1962014.
6. Rilla Melati, oral history interview, 16 February 2024, Reel/Disc 1 of 5.
7.“Capai Impian Genggam Sarjana Walau Perlu Ambil Perjalanan ‘Z hingga A’,” Berita Harian, 5 October 2021, https://www.beritaharian.sg/rencana/capai-impian-genggam-sarjana-walau-perlu-ambil-perjalanan-z-hingga.
8. Rilla Melati, oral history interview, 16 February 2024, Reel/Disc 1 of 5.
9. Rilla Melati, oral history interview, 6 March 2024, Reel/Disc 4 of 5.
10. Rilla Melati, oral history interview, 6 March 2024, Reel/Disc 4 of 5.
11. Rilla Melati, oral history interview, 6 March 2024, Reel/Disc 4 of 5.
12. Rilla Melati, oral history interview, 6 March 2024, Reel/Disc 4 of 5.
13. Rilla Melati, oral history interview, 16 February 2024, Reel/Disc 1 of 5.
14. Rilla Melati, oral history interview, 16 February 2024, Reel/Disc 1 of 5.
15. S.R. Nathan, Bangau dan Ketam (Singapore: Epigram Books, 2014). (Call no.: SING Malay 499.2886 NAT)
16. Rilla Melati Bahri, Gajah untuk Adil (Singapore: Dua M, 2009). (Call no.: RSING Malay 499.2886 RIL)
17. Rilla Melati Bahri, Meja Makan Adil (Singapore: Mini Monsters, 2016). (Call no.: RSING Malay 499.2886 RIL)
18. Rilla Melati Bahri, Payung Datuk Adil (Singapore: Mini Monsters, 2016). (Call no.: RSING Malay 499.2886 RIL)
19. Rilla Melati Bahri, Kuih untuk Adil (Singapore: Mini Monsters, 2018). (Call no.: RSING Malay 499.2886 RIL)
20. Rilla Melati Bahri, Baju Melayu Ati (Singapore: Dua M, 2013). (Call no.: RSING Malay 499.28 RIL)
21. Rilla Melati Bahri, Ubat untuk Unta (Singapore: Dua M, 2013). (Call no.: RSING Malay 499.2886 RIL)
22. Rilla Melati Bahri, Harimau yang Hebat (Singapore: Dua M, 2013). (Call no.: RSING Malay 499.2886 RIL)
23. Rilla Melati Bahri, Selipar si Siput (Singapore: Dua M, 2013). (Call no.: RSING Malay 499.2886 RIL)
24. Rilla Melati Bahri, Topi Api (Singapore: Dua M, 2013). (Call no.: RSING Malay 499.2886 RIL)
25. Rilla Melati Bahri, Mana Naga? (Singapore: Dua M, 2013). (Call no.: RSING Malay 499.2886 RIL)
26. Rilla Melati Bahri, Baju Baharu (Singapore: Dua M, 2013). (Call no.: RSING Malay 499.2886 RIL)
27. Rilla Melati Bahri, Raja dan Ratu (Singapore: Dua M, 2013). (Call no.: RSING Malay 499.2886 RIL)
28. Rilla Melati Bahri, Kaki Kanan Kaki Kiri (Singapore: Dua M, 2015). (Call no.: RSING Malay 499.2886 RIL)
29. Rilla Melati Bahri, Jala Jali (Singapore: Dua M, 2015). (Call no.: RSING Malay 499.2886 RIL)
30. Rilla Melati Bahri, Si Pencuri Ketawa: Kisah di Dalam Taman di Persisiran (Singapore: Mini Monsters, 2017). (Call no.: RSING Malay 499.2886 RIL)
31. Rilla Melati Bahri, CindeRilla: Sebuah Undangan (Singapore: AFCC Publications; National Book Development Council of Singapore; Stephen Riady Foundation, 2017). (Call no.: RSING Malay 428.6 RIL)
32. Rilla Melati Bahri, Capal Samsudin (Singapore: Mini Monsters, 2020). (Call no.: RSING Malay 499.2886 RIL)
33. Rilla Melati Bahri, Kisah Raya Ramdan (Singapore: Mini Monsters, 2021). (Call no.: RSING Malay 499.2886 RIL)
34. Rilla Melati Bahri, Songkok Haji Agil (Singapore: Mini Monsters, 2021). (Call no.: RSING Malay 499.2886 RIL)
35. Rilla Melati Bahri, Tidak Mahu Degil (Singapore: Mini Monsters, 2024). (From PublicationSG)
36. Majlis Bahasa Melayu Singapura, “Anugerah Persuratan: List of Recipients 2007–2023,” last updated 2 May 2024, https://www.languagecouncils.sg/mbms/en/anugerah-persuratan/ap-honour-roll.
37. Singapore Book Council, “Board of Directors: Rilla Melati Bahri,” accessed 14 April 2025, https://www.bookcouncil.sg/about/our-people.
39. National Heritage Board, “NHB Boards and Sub Boards as of 30 April 2024,” last updated 30 April 2024, 4 https://www.nhb.gov.sg/-/media/nhb/files/media/annual-reports/nhb-boards-subboards-and-advisory-panels-as-of-30-april-2024.pdf.

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The information in this article is valid as of October 2025 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic. If you have any feedback on this article, please submit it here.