Home and Away: Nicole da Silva joins the cast in the Bay’s best-kept secret

Going incognito is not the easiest thing to do when you’re one of the most recognisable faces on Aussie TV. Just ask Wentworth and Doctor Doctor star Nicole da Silva, who began filming a regular role on Home and Away earlier this year.

Her new gig was a closely guarded secret — today is the first time fans can officially know — but it’s hard to hide when you’re standing slap-bang in the middle of Summer Bay.

“Wentworth fans, they are everywhere,” says da Silva, referring to the globally popular Foxtel drama that sent her profile skyrocketing when she joined the cast in 2013.

“In the early days of filming up at Palm Beach (Home and Away’s real location), I had fans come out of the woodwork, and I’d hear my name being called out (while on set).

“I tried to avoid their questions and the cameras, but unfortunately, there were whispers going around.”

Posts started popping up on Reddit, but nothing was confirmed.

Finally, da Silva can speak on the record, albeit still cryptically — all she is able to reveal (for now) is that she’ll play a doctor named Amelia Carlisle, newly arrived in the Bay.

Just who her character will be interacting with remains a closely guarded secret.

“I am not allowed to name names yet — sorry,” she says.

“It’s all a bit secret-squirrels, and an ‘in the cone of silence’ kind of situation.

“But all will be revealed soon — and I think audiences are going to get a real kick out of who I cross paths with in Summer Bay.”

This is just the latest TV role for da Silva, who has starred in some of the country’s most-loved — and most-watched — TV series.

There have been recent roles in Harrow, Love Me and Bump, plus parts in Nine’s big-budget cop drama Rush and Netflix’s One Night, opposite Yael Stone.

Her very first professional acting role was playing a paramedic in the beloved medical drama, All Saints, in 2005.

“Shoosh, you are revealing my age now,” she laughs.

“But yes, you are right: I have been very lucky to score a few long-running gigs — it’s really any working actor’s dream. “

Returning to series television wasn’t necessarily on the cards for the 40-something star, but the role came along at just the right time for da Silva, who returned to Australia from the US a few years ago.

“Wentworth was coming to an end for me and I made the decision to move over there at that time,” she says of the seven years she spent living in the US.

“Then I got lured back for season four and season five … and then I got a call from Rodger (Corser, her co-star) saying, ‘Would you be interested in doing (Nine’s hit series) Doctor Doctor?’”

“It was wild, and it’s always the way: you’re so busy making plans, and then the universe says, ‘Actually, this is what we have in store for you’.”

It was a similar story with this latest gig.

“It was funny, I was like, ‘OK, here I am plodding along’, quite enjoying doing some theatre and getting back into that world, and then this part came, and it all just fell into place,” da Silva says.

“My reasons (for taking the role) are twofold, or maybe even threefold.

“To be honest, it was a great opportunity, and it came at exactly the right time: I am a single parent, and to be able to live and work in Sydney, where I am raising my daughter, meant we could stay around our community, (and be around) our friends and our family.

“It meant I could provide that consistency — and that was a big, key element.”

Da Silva is notoriously private — no mean feat considering the fandom that surrounds the role she played on Wentworth.

For six years, she played “Top Dog” Franky Doyle on the prison drama, and her character’s redemption journey from hardened crim to fierce advocate made her a firm favourite with fans.

There’s understandable interest in her life. But so far, save for the occasional photo of her rescue dog posted to Instagram, she’s managed to do the seemingly impossible, and stay under the radar outside of her well-known screen roles.

“It was essential for me to raise my daughter back in Australia, and in Sydney,” she says of her move home.

“To be close to my parents — her grandparents — and to have that multi-generational family and living (arrangement).

“For me, there was no question about that — I was going to come home to Sydney and raise my kiddo — it just made sense.

“I think when you are raising kids, it sounds like a cliche, but it’s a fact: it takes a village — and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Now she’s stepping into the village of Summer Bay, and into a well-established and supportive workplace.

“Everyone is close, but then I think you have to be, because (the show) shoots at such a fast pace,” she explains.

“You really need to have a shorthand with each other — I am very thankful to have stepped into such an amazing cast and crew.”

Home And Away has been on screens since 1988, and has helped launch the careers of scores of big-name Aussie stars, including Heath Ledger, Isla Fisher, Chris Hemsworth and Guy Pearce. Even when da Silva was in LA, it was a point of reference during casting meetings.

“It has really put Australia on the map in terms of the talent we produce,” she explains.

“So when I spent my time in the US, when I was living over there, it was a question that was asked in several meetings, ‘Have you been on Home And Away?’.”

For the record, she had: in 2006, right at the beginning of her career, she had a brief guest role, playing a character named Jane.

Now she’s back, on a more permanent basis, and admits it’s nice to be working on a show you grew up watching.

“I engaged in Home And Away when it was peak 90s Shane and Angel era, and Bobby, and all the cool kids,” she laughs.

“It’s just a kind of show that ‘s synonymous with the Australian identity, and that comfort and ease and joy we are all looking for.”

For the time being, fans will have to wait to see how da Silva’s new doctor character plays into the drama. But it wont be long before she’s front and centre, and on our screens.

“It will be nice to have Amelia out in the sunshine and in the Bay,” she says.

Watch this space.

Home and Away airs Mon-Thurs at 7pm on Seven and 7Plus.