Bernadette started performing after she grasped the English language. Occasionally, she would slip from English to her native language which made for very interesting school plays. After high school, she pursued a nursing career because if you were Filipino you had to be a nurse. It's the LAW! Before getting accepted to the program Bernadette decided to quit college and pursue acting. She never told her parents but they eventually found out after seeing her in an MCI commercial.
Her big break came when she beat out over a thousand girls for the lead role of Rose Mercado in the critically acclaimed movie "The Debut". This ground breaking film is the first Filipino-American movie ever made and released in the United States. Roger Ebert gave it a "thumbs up" and stated that "newcomer Bernadette Balagtas has marquis potential".
Acting was a great outlet but Bernadette missed the immediate response she would receive while doing live theater. As a result, she decided to try stand-up comedy at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles. After her set, Mitzi Shore told her she was very funny and charming and to keep at it.
Bernadette then combined her acting and comedy skills to perform a one-woman show called “Faces of America”. The show consisted of nine different characters and dealt with issues of multi-culturalism and diversity. For a year and a half, she toured across the country at colleges and universities. This experience gave Bernadette the desire to continue her education. On June of 2003, her parent’s dreams came true when she received her theater-arts performance degree from California State University of Long Beach.
Since that day, Bernadette has continued pursuing her acting and comedy career at comedy clubs, college events and church functions across the country. Her energy, stage presence and clever wit has made Bernadette Balagtas one of the most talked about newcomers in stand-up comedy. Since she will never be a nurse, she hopes to fulfill her mother's dreams by someday playing one on TV.