Alena Jirásek has loved dabbling with words ever since she could speak. Firstly Czech and then English. This led her to an interest in linguistics and studies in languages - Spanish and French, and then German and Portuguese - and later also to qualifications in Speech Pathology. Alena has worked extensively in multicultural environments in Australia, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic.

As an accredited translator from Czech to English by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI), Alena is able to certify translations of legal, technical, medical or personal documents. Her passion is literary translation and she has translated autobiographies, essays and poetry. Alena has also completed full translation from Czech to English for the award-winning feature documentary film The Art of Dissent released in 2020.

AoD Wins 'Feather Award' for Best Documentary at Karama Human Rights Film Festival in Amman, Jordan