A few years ago Lin Yin was working her nine-to-five in the Australian Public Service. This week, she returned to Canberra but this time as an actress in the Singaporean drama Shero.
The 20-episode drama, by Singaporean production company Mediacorp, started filming in the capital last month, with the 10-day shoot wrapping up on Friday.
Starring some of Singapore's A-listers, including leads Joanne Peh and Romeo Tan, Shero tells the story of a young woman who decides to join her missing sister's bodyguard company to continue her legacy - and the search for her parents' murderer.
While Yin couldn't share too much about her character Elain, the actor did say she gets into a bit of a sticky situation with the leads.
Of course, the role is a great opportunity for the actor - it's her first time in a Singaporean production - but it's also a chance to return to her former home of Canberra.
"Strange is probably the keyword. I never thought I would be coming back to Canberra for work, because why would I as an actress?" Yin said.
"There's not an industry there, let alone for a Singaporean TV show. If you told me this years ago, I would have laughed in your face.
"But I was excited to come back. There's so much good food in Canberra, and the prettiest sunsets."
It's fair to say that it's a big jump from the public service to an international acting career, and if Yin's honest, it was never a career that she had dreamed of growing up.
"When I was younger, it's not like, I felt like, 'Oh, I could do anything. There are so many career options," Yin said.
"I grew up in a pretty conservative family home, not to discredit my parents, but the most important thing was security and a stable job. My grandma was so ecstatic that I was working for the government. That was her dream come true for me. And she's still devastated to this day that I no longer work in Canberra for the government. Stability was so important."
But after a few years, and various shifts to different teams within the public service, Yin realised she didn't like being stuck inside an office all day. So she set her eyes on journalism, and after a brief stint working for The Canberra Times, she went to Beijing to follow her media career and get in touch with her heritage.
It was there that she met two film producers from Los Angeles.
"China's film industry was booming at the time," Yin said.
"And these two producers ... were big talkers. They loved to talk about how everything's happening in China: 'The film industry is where it's at; this is everything; you should join the film industry - everything's about to happen'. And I got sucked in.
"I didn't know anything about film. But anything can happen in China, - that was my experience there - and I ended up working on the film set of the most expensive film ever to be shot in China at the time."
It was the 2018 film Asura, which reportedly had a budget of US$115 million, and by all accounts was one of the country's biggest flops, raking in only US$7 million at the box office. But it did get Yin on set and entranced by what the actors were doing.
"I was most interested in what the actors were doing. But I didn't quite admit that to myself yet, because that's a very scary jump," Yin said.
"Eventually, when I came home to Melbourne, it just dawned on me that this is something that I should just really try if it's in me. And so I went for it."
Yin made her on-screen debut in 2018's The Whistleblower - the biggest Chinese-Australian co-production to be shot in Australia - and has gone on to star in Anchuli-Felicia King's play White Pearl with Sydney Theatre Company, cast in the critically acclaimed online series Flunk - which has been picked up for TV in Belgium and the United States - and was recently cast alongside Sam Neill, Christoph Waltz and Miranda Otto in fantasy feature The Portable Door, which is coming to Stan later this year.
Now, she has her sights set on the US.
"I've got a bunch of really exciting things lined up, and to be honest, there is more opportunity for me in the US," Yin said.
"Australia is just a few beats behind when it comes to diversity in casting, and in the US, I find that when I audition for roles, there's such a wide range of characters.
"They're open to seeing people of all kinds of backgrounds, which is exciting because I feel like all of these huge movies coming out of the US such as Everything Everywhere All At Once and Crazy Rich Asians a few years ago.
"There's a lot of activity there and there's a huge Asian American community that's very strong, and also banding together in this industry. And I long to be part of it."
