SINGAPORE – On Jan 19, home-grown entertainment veteran Vernetta Lopez returns to the small screen as the star of the new local English-language comedy-drama Aunty Lee’s Deadly Delights.

But the lead role was not the reason she exited the radio scene after three decades, the 52-year-old DJ-actress tells The Straits Times in an on-set interview in June. She quit radio station Gold 905’s morning show in May.

“A lot of people are misunderstanding that I left radio to do TV. When I made the decision, I felt like a butterfly spreading its wings. It’s so momentous. People say, ‘Oh, how’s semi-retirement?’, but I’m not retiring, I’m busier than ever.

“Call it a midlife crisis, I don’t care. Maybe it is, but it just felt right. The routine on morning radio made it very tough for me to do other projects. And you look at the social sphere and entertainment – things are moving in rapid ways,” says Lopez, who married British IT professional Wayne Gladwin in 2009.

“I want to have a finger in something else, because radio has had most of my life, and I’ve given it my all. And so I think it’s okay to put that to bed for now.”

Besides acting, she is also planning to launch a YouTube channel, Three Things With Vernetta, covering a variety of topics such as cooking, travel, money and lifestyle tips. She will also make more content, such as ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) videos, for her social media platforms on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

In Aunty Lee’s Deadly Delights, which will be shown on both Channel 5 and mewatch and is based on Singapore writer Ovidia Yu’s Aunty Lee’s book series (2013 to 2017), Lopez plays the titular Peranakan restaurant owner who is also an amateur sleuth dealing with crimes in her neighbourhood.