April Rose Pengilly was ready to chase an acting career in the US when Neighbours came calling.

The model turned actress who is the daughter of INXS band member Kirk Pengilly and Karen Hutchinson couldn't pass up a role on Ramsay Street.  

"When I got the call back I was about to move to America," she says.

"I'd been aiming to go there for about six years and had finally got the visa and was about to go when this came up. It's all been such a whirlwind."  

The bright lights of Hollywood will have to wait, with Pengilly making her Neighbours debut as Chloe Brennan.   

Having grown up separately to her brothers Mark, Tyler and Aaron, Chloe is a new face in the neighbourhood.  

"She'd been living with her mother and she and her brothers had only seen each other occasionally," Pengilly says.

"She's been travelling around the world on a very extended gap year - a couple of gap years - seeing everything the world has to offer. But she's run out of money and has come back to crash with the brothers.  

"It's been so much fun filming with the boys. I'm an only child so it feels like what I imagine having brothers would be like. We have so much fun on set."  

Free-spirited Chloe is set to shake things up in Erinsborough.  

"She always wants everything to be fun," she says.

"She has no filter and that gets her into trouble, but she always means well."  

After making her acting debut on the big screen, working on a fast-paced soap has been a change of pace for the 29-year-old.  

"The hours here can be full-on," she says.

"Even in your outside hours you have to get all your scenes in order. It's a lot like high school which I didn't expect but quite enjoy."  

So what's in store for Chloe?  

"There might be a bit of romance, as there is on Neighbours," Pengilly says.  

"She's surprised herself and becomes quite passionate about her job at Lassiter's. After years of flitting about while travelling, and not having an anchor, I think she enjoys being with her brothers and having a job she's passionate about."  

Neighbours airs weekdays at 6.30pm on Eleven.