But in the TV series “Expats,” she said she found a new and unexpected calling as an actress.

Through a virtual interview from Hong Kong, she shared how her artistic inclination started when she was in high school in the Central Visayas province.

“I wrote the scripts and I was also the lead star,” she said in Filipino. “My family was fond of Broadway musicals and plays.”

Filmed in Hong Kong during the pandemic, a friend of Pardenilla’s husband mentioned the “Expats” audition call looking for a Filipina in her ’40s who can sing.

Over a thousand Filipinos from Manila, London, Los Angeles, and several other places auditioned for the role.

But she was handpicked by the show’s creator and director Lulu Wang to play Puri, a domestic helper who also dreams of becoming a singer.

Filipino actors shine on Prime Video series 'Expats'

Because Pardenilla had no prior acting experience, the show’s casting director wanted her to go through a workshop first. But Wang insisted that it was unnecessary and instead favored Pardenilla's natural talent.

“I saw her sing and was blown away by her voice,” said Wang. “She did a scene and said, ‘I don't know how to act!’ I was like, ‘Well, you can't tell that you don't know because you are a natural.’ Her spunk and her humor, all of it played so well into the role.”

Despite Pardenilla’s thriving acting career, she asserts that singing is still her true passion. 

After all, it was what brought her to Hong Kong together with her husband Lloyd Yamid, who is also a musician, a musical arranger, and a director.

When Wang was looking for a musical director for the “Roar” musical number in the show, Pardenilla recommended Yamid to Wang.

Like many Filipinos, Pardenilla took up nursing in college but couldn’t find gainful employment in the Philippines as a registered nurse.

She shared that in 2001, leaving her children – then a two-year-old and a 10-month-old – was the hardest thing she ever did.

It took five years of backbreaking hard work in Hong Kong before she and her husband were able to save enough money to have their children join them.

“You long for your children,” Pardenilla added, also in Filipino. “You don’t know what’s happening to them at home. But we couldn’t do anything. We have to take risks here because life back in the Philippines is hard.”

She added: “I used to sing six nights a week. Sundays were my day-off with my husband. He also used to play six nights a week. We used to go to Central and I was glad because there were a lot of Filipinos there.”

Co-produced and top-billed by Nicole Kidman, Pardenilla said the struggles of OFWs are depicted truthfully in “Expats."

The Prime Video series "Expats" which features Filipino cast members such as Amelyn Pardenilla and Ruby Ruiz is co-produced by Nicole Kidman.

Ruby Ruiz’s character is Essie who left her family in the Philippines and devotes her life to her employers, while Pardenilla’s character Puri was made to feel special by her boss one day, only to be put in her place as a servant the day after.

Ruby Ruiz calls 'Expats' as 'biggest break in my entire life'

Asked what was the most difficult thing she experienced in Hong Kong, Pardenilla said it was the discrimination.

“Filipinos really tend to be looked down upon here,” she shared. “For example, as a singer, they have a different rate, one that is lower, for Filipinos.”

The positive reaction to her performance led her next to Paris in December to do a film with Naomi Watts.

The other details of the project are still confidential but Pardenilla shared that it is also a substantial role.

Through “Expats,’ she was also able to film in Los Angeles and attend the premiere in New York.

She could not contain her delight in the special treatment she receives while doing Hollywood projects.

“It’s the accommodation, the suite,” she said. “[You fly] business fly to-and-fro. And then you get picked up and driven by a Tesla or a Mercedes Benz.”

Though they are par for the course for other actresses, Pardenilla raved that these are things she never thought she would ever experience.

The OFW-turned-actress said that no matter what unexpected perks her acting career gives her, she will always go back to singing.

True enough, each time she returns to Hong Kong from filming abroad, she finds her way back to the stage where her performing dreams began.