In a way, Amilia Shaw’s playfulness at 6 months old was paving the way for her future acting career.

The Mercer Island native’s mother, Dana, says during that juncture, Amilia was already a performer while practicing her facial expressions in her crib mirror.

“She could see that I had a flair for the dramatic,” said Amilia, now 27, who added that her mother holds an undergraduate drama degree and loved acting and her grandmother was an actress.

Added Dana while dipping back into Amilia’s past: “She also quickly mastered the art of very realistic fake crying and would put on makeup and do performances with movement at age 3. At age 4, she proclaimed in her nursery school that her goal was to be a Broadway actress though she had never been to NYC.”

Amilia, who is currently performing in “The Glitch” Off-Broadway in New York City, was a self-proclaimed hyperactive kid who fell in love with acting while attending a Stroum Jewish Community Center camp at the age of 8. At age 9, she played Juliet in “Romeo and Juliet” at the J and later acted in plays at Mercer Island’s Youth Theatre Northwest, Seattle Children’s Theatre and Issaquah’s Village Theatre.

She participated in a drama improv class at Mercer Island High School, where she attended classes before departing the summer prior to her junior year for the performing arts-focused Talented Unlimited High School in New York.

“I wanted to continue training. I knew I wanted to go to school for theater and musical theater, which I did end up doing,” Amilia said. “I wanted a balance of academics and the performing arts and that was Talents Unlimited.”

Following high school, she enrolled in the University of Oklahoma’s Weitzenhoffer School of Musical Theatre, and then moved on to the City University of New York and earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in musical theater. She also trained at The Maggie Flanigan Studio in New York City.

In the present day, Amilia has delved into the role of Aurora in the Kipp Koenig-authored “The Glitch,” which began its run at The Theater Center’s Jerry Orbach Theater on Sept. 24 and will conclude its stretch of performances on Nov. 2.

The new play’s tagline reads: “What if AI let you meet your daughter years before she was born?”

“It’s a really beautiful piece, honestly,” Amilia said. “It’s about a company in the near future that creates holographic virtual generations of a couple’s future child. So they take the DNA of both of the parents and synthesize that, and then also do personality questionnaires with the parents to help formulate the personality of the virtual child. And then you get to interact with the virtual child in different scenarios. It’s a really cool concept.”

Amilia acts from off stage, with her voice entering the picture accompanied on stage by lights. She likened Aurora — who is an AI virtual assistant who conducts the interviews — to an Alexa/Siri character.

“It’s a really cool experience that I’m able to convey so much from off stage with just my voice,” said Amilia, adding that Aurora is sort of the mastermind behind the play’s events.

While the play does touch upon how people are afraid of AI with online deepfakes and more, said Amilia, she notes that “The Glitch” does point out the potential benevolence of AI such as how Aurora tries to connect two people who belong together.

During the opening-week performances, Amilia said that attendees were thrilled with what they witnessed.

“They are surprised by the balance of being concerned with AI and then also learning to love this AI being that is Aurora that is pulling the strings ultimately for reasons that are positive — like love,” said Amilia, who’s been receiving a lot more voiceover auditions and callbacks since she entered the world of “The Glitch.”

Prior to starring in “The Glitch,” Amilia — who is also a singer and dancer — received SheNYC’s “Best Supporting Actor in a Play” for her performance in “Mere Waters.” Some of Amilia’s other roles include starring alongside Austin Pendleton and Ilia Volok as Ida Chagall in the world premiere of “Chagall in New York” at Theatre for the New City; appearing on screen in the web series “Casting Madness” and “Marriage First” and more. One of her next roles will be as an associate producer on a project that’s in its initial phase.

Looking back on her Mercer Island theater years, Amilia said that her classmates were super supportive and Youth Theatre Northwest director Amanda Lee Williams supplied some vital advice that has stuck with her over time.

“I remember her saying to me, ‘No matter what you do — don’t stop.’ She said, ‘You have something special in you — your inner light shines through what you do on stage.’ I never felt more at home than when I was on stage,” Amilia said.

Aside from performing, while Amilia does have a manager, she’s learned to advocate for herself by building relationships, writing emails, being aggressive and networking to land roles.

Mother Dana said that Amilia loves her craft and is always looking to improve and grow: “She has worked very hard and seriously attending a professional acting studio and studying with top voice teachers here in NYC. She is a very hard worker, embraced hard work at a young age and enjoys it. It is her ethos.”