April Bowlby's fledgling Hollywood career might seem a bit like a slapdash, blur-a-moment ride down one of those old waterslides in her hometown of Manteca.

Schooling took her from there to a brief, two-semester flurry at Moorpark College, where French, marine biology and ballet were an eclectic mix on her plate. She gave that up for a stab at acting and, fresh off a stint with technique guru Ivanna Chubbuck, Bowlby read for a few lines on the CBS hit "Two and a Half Men."

That has quickly blossomed into a recurring role as Kandi, the ditzy girlfriend of the Alan character played by Jon Cryer. Bowlby has been on the show 14 times thus far, and of course can be seen in the show's summer reruns.

Typically, she said during a recent phone interview, the show gives her about three weeks' advance notice of when she'll be on next not that she's complaining. When one of the most popular sitcoms in the land comes calling, people including Bowlby listen.

"It's like, 'You want me to work?' Yes, please," the affable 26-year-old Bowlby said.

When she's not on the show, Bowlby's out doing what all actors do looking for other roles. The day of this interview, she had an audition "Pilot season has been very interesting," she said.

Though she hadn't landed anything yet "Wouldn't that be great?" she said she's out there trying.

Bowlby does have small parts in two movies slated for release later this year, "All Roads Lead To Home" and "Sands of Oblivion."

She may have found one niche. Though her return to "Two and a Half Men" this fall isn't exactly the show's season cliffhanger, indications are Bowlby will be back as Kandi. On her last first-run appearance on March 19, signs pointed to her character's role growing.

Bowlby said that Chuck Lorre, the show's executive producer, has told her he wants to explore that, leading her to say, "Now I have a career." So on the return question, she said: "I'm gonna say yes. I would assume so." (A spokesman for Warner Bros., which produces the CBS show declined to confirm or deny that, noting that the show is now on hiatus.)

Bowlby had zero problem dissecting the popularity of "Two and a Half Men," which centers on the antics at a household shared by Charlie Sheen's character, his brother (Cryer) and his brother's son (hence the title).

The show regularly is in the Top 20 in the Nielsens, routinely draws more than 12 million viewers, bags People's Choice awards and was the highest-rated sitcom on U.S. television in 2005-06, a title it might very well reclaim this time around. The show's season finale was May 14. Next season will be its fifth.

"I think Jon Cryer and Charlie Sheen have a lot of chemistry between them," Bowlby said. "The writers have found a lot of racy plot lines. The energy is real good. It's a safe place to have fun every Monday night."

Character and class

Of her character, Bowlby said: "Kandi is kind of innocently oblivious. She's just a sweet girl, and doesn't get what's going on. It's a real pink world for her.

"She's a ditz ... or easy to live with, either one."

An old acting saw goes that playing dumb, especially in a comedy, is among the toughest things to do. Bowlby said she's heard a lot of actors say it but isn't so sure in this case.

"I don't know, because Kandi is very easy for me to play," she said. "I have a lot of her personality in me. I want to please everyone; that's a little piece of me I share with Kandi. And I haven't had the chance to play another dumb character yet."

Dumb luck might have played a part in her getting the role of Kandi, and Bowlby's grateful and humble for it. She confirmed that all it took was reading a couple of lines a few months after a stint in Chubbuck's acting studio.

"I feel like I went through the back door on that one," Bowlby said. "It was all timing. I couldn't have planned it better. The universe was all aligned and ta-da here I am."

Before that, Bowlby was at Moorpark College. After graduating high school in Manteca, she decided to move to Newbury Park to live with her best friend, and the two went to college together. Of her French-marine biology-ballet mix at Moorpark, Bowlby said, "If you're going to school, you should do what you enjoy." Though it was only for two semesters, Bowlby remembers the campus as "beautiful and hilly."

In her marine biology class, Bowlby recalled that she had "a really cool professor, I don't remember her name," who took them to see Leo Carrillo State Beach to see starfish and other marine life.

Bowlby always liked French and decided to take it at Moorpark. She recalled that she had a voice interaction-diction teacher "who was really excited about wanting to inspire his students."

That enthusiasm was common among the instructors there, she said, and something new to her.

"Most of my teachers in high school didn't enjoy it like that," Bowlby remarked.

Ballet was a childhood dream, Bowlby said: "I wanted to be a ballerina so badly. You can be seen and take over the spotlight without speaking. I had a fear of speaking in public back then."

And now she boxes. Bowlby said she recently took up boxing lessons, adding: "I really, really love it. It's about taking your power back."

She also said she's mulling surfing lessons, before adding, "but I'm afraid of sharks."

Other interests include reading and bicycling. "And I just discovered the Santa Monica flea market, every Sunday," she said. "I go weekly. There's a lot of interesting things there."

Slip slidin' away

If Bowlby goes unspotted there, her fans might catch her in "Sands of Oblivion" there, she said, she plays a naive college student who's taken advantage of by her professor or in "All Roads Lead Home," which she described as a "really sweet" family movie centering on a little girl and her dog; Bowlby plays a veterinarian's assistant and couldn't resist another bit of playfulness.

"We find out why the dogs are dying dunh, dunh, dunh and we save a few of them," she said, her voice evoking some mood music.

It's been quite a ride for Bowlby, who was born in Vallejo but moved with her family to Manteca as a child.

Manteca is a blip on the map perhaps best known as a place you blow past en route between San Francisco and Yosemite National Park or for those waterslides. Well, make the latter past tense.

"They just tore them down for housing," she said, a hint of sadness in her voice; she used to partake in them. "That was our little monument, the waterslides."

Bowlby also said she has a boyfriend (a photographer), news that might sink quite a few hearts of single men in Los Angeles. Cheer up, guys. That was as of this interview. Things can change.

Be it on a sitcom set, on campus or on waterslides, April Bowlby's life moves swiftly.