Home and Away announces new character Dr Amelia Carlisle

Home and Away has officially announced that Nicole da Silva has joined the cast as new doctor Dr Amelia Carlisle and will arrive on screen in the coming months.

Former Wentworth star Nicole da Silva has swapped prison teals for a stethoscope as she joins Home and Away.

After months of speculation, Channel Seven announced today that Nicole has joined the cast of the Summer Bay soap as Dr Amelia Carlisle.

A post on Home and Away‘s Instagram account reads: “Help is on the way for the Northern Districts Hospital! Amelia, played by the talented Nicole da Silva, will be arriving in the coming months on Home and Away 💙”

As we reported back in February, the arrival of new character Amelia has been rumoured for a number of months, after former Wentworth star Nicole was spotted on set by attendees of CelebTime’s Home and Away tour.

She was spotted filming alongside Jeremy Lindsay Taylor (David) and Ada Nicodemou (Leah), at the Coffee Cart during the soap’s first week of shooting for 2026.

Since then, she has been seen filming at Palm Beach on a number of occasions, leading to speculation that she had joined the show as a full-time cast member.

In late March, she was spotted by YouTubers R&F Adventures filming on the balcony of Salt.

Once again, she was filming a scene alongside Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, with fans wondering whether romance could be blossoming between the new doctor and Sergeant Langham.

However, it seems eagle-eyed fans missed actually missed her first scene at Palm Beach.

“My first scene was at Palm Beach with Ray [Meagher], who plays Alf, obviously,” Nicole told the Daily Telegraph’s Stellar magazine, which confirmed her character’s full name as Dr Amelia Carlisle.

“That was a real pinch-me moment. I was like, ‘Oh, wow. I’m definitely in the Bay now. I’ve arrived.'”

Speaking further of her casting, Nicole told the magazine that she is honoured to be joining the series.

“It’s a real privilege to be able to step onto such an iconic show, and the timing was really right for it,” she continued.

“There aren’t many productions shooting in Sydney, and as a single parent, to be able to keep myself and my daughter close to our community, our family, our friends – it just made a lot of sense.”

Nicole is no stranger to the Seven Network, with her first role out of university being on the network’s flagship medical drama All Saints, as semi-regular paramedic Sasha Fernandez.

As the Bay’s newest resident doctor, Nicole noted that she is lucky she’s been around medical terminology before, considering the pace at which Home and Away films.

“I’m not going to lie, it is very intimidating,” she adds. “And I always want to do absolute justice to the people in the jobs I’m portraying. I was lucky in a sense that I played an ambulance officer in All Saints.”

Following her time on All Saints, she appeared in Home and Away as guest character Jane Sims in 2006, a friend of Kit Hunter’s (Amy Mizzi) who shared a kiss with Kit’s married brother Robbie (Jason Smith) in Episode 4126.

She went on the play various roles in Dangerous, East West 101 and Carla Cametti P.D. before landing the lead role of Stella Dagostino in the Southern Star series Rush, which she played for the series’ entire 70 episode run.

It was after this she was cast in the role she is arguably best known for: rough prisoner Franky Doyle in Wentworth.

Over six years, Nicole portrayed Franky’s journey from a brutal yet effective top dog who was imprisoned for throwing hot oil over – and permanently disfiguring – her boss, to a reformed solicitor in training in a loving relationship with psychiatrist Bridget Westfall (Libby Tanner), known in the fandom as ‘Fridget’.

This was not withstanding being framed for a crime she didn’t commit, being shot, rescuing the psychopathic governor from a fire she caused and clashing with mum-turned-attempted murderer Bea Smith (Danielle Cormack).

When not filming Wentworth, Nicole was shooting Doctor Doctor for the Nine Network, alongside Rodger Corser, where she starred as primary school teacher Charlie Knight.

After both shows wrapped, Nicole began a production company alongside Danielle Cormack called Four One One.

Dubbed their “creative brainchild”, Four One One is “driven by the need to create interesting and intelligent content, we have a passion for unseen stories, both real and fictional.”

Their production line up boasts a 10 x 1 hour drama series set in the world of Melbourne youth sub-culture during the 1960s-70s named Sharpies and an 8 x 30 min dramedy about a rock goddess titled Bird.

It also includes a film adaptation of Sarah Walker’s play Who’s Afraid? which both Nicole and Danielle starred in during its run as a stage show at Belvoir Street Theatre in 2022.

The play depicted Nicole and Danielle as a couple looking to conceive a child with a gay couple (played by David Franklin and Joshua Shediak) on New Year’s Eve. As shenanigans ensued, both relationships were called into question.

Nicole also has extensive theatre credits including most recently the role of Sarah in The Lover & The Dumb Waiter, performed at Ensemble Theatre.

Nicole’s first scenes on Home and Away are expected to air in the coming months.

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Who else is coming to Summer Bay in 2026?

Nicole’s character Amelia isn’t the only new character arriving this year. Another new face arriving in the coming months is police officer Richie, played by Rocco Forrester-Sach.

In late November, footage appeared on the Home and Away Spoilers & Info Facebook group of a new character in a police uniform, filming alongside Nicholas Cartwright (Cash) and Hailey Pinto (Abigail).

The character’s name was recently confirmed by CelebTime, who spotted Rocco once again filming alongside Hailey Pinto in early January, suggesting that he may be sticking around in the bay.

Plus, it’s believed that that Harper’s (Jessica Redmayne) getting herself a new boyfriend in the months ahead, with another new character set to arrive, who Back to the Bay has identifying as being played by actor Blake Richardson.

Footage from CelebTime in late January saw Harper spending time at Salt with a mystery newcomer – could she finally be ready to move on from Tane?

In early February, travel YouTubers R&F Adventures 2.0 headed to Palm Beach and were lucky enough to see the cast filming a number of scenes.

The YouTubers caught sight of Jessica and Blake filming together, this time on the parkland by the beach, with the video’s narrator Rhino Padroth claiming that the new character is named Beau and is Harper’s new boyfriend.

The pair were seen having an animated conversation together, before Beau touched Harper’s arm and walked off.

A later scene saw Beau and Harper hanging out with baby Archie, suggesting that the newcomer is perfectly happy with the fact that Harper has a child.  

However, the pair becoming Summer Bay’s next big couple looks increasingly unlikely, with rumours that Harper will be leaving town later this year.

More on that in our latest Arrivals and Departures article here.

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