Laura Rollins (born 20 December 1988) is a British- Bajan actress, known for portraying the role of Ayesha Lee on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

soap opera ''

Doctors Doctor, Doctors, The Doctor or The Doctors may refer to: Titles and occupations * Physician, a medical practitioner * Doctor (title), an academic title for the holder of a doctoral-level degree ** Doctorate ** List of doctoral degrees awarded b ...

'', a role which she played from 2014 to 2020. For her portrayal of Ayesha, she received an accolade at the

RTS Midlands Awards The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

. Since leaving ''Doctors'', Rollins has appeared in various television series including ''

Innocent Innocence is a lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence is prior to the sense of legal guilt and is a primal emotion connected with the sense of self. It is often confused as being the op ...

'' and '' Miss Scarlet and The Duke''.

Life and career

Rollins was born on 20 December 1988. She is of British and Barbadian heritage. She began her acting training at the Custard Factory aged nine, after which she was offered a place at the Carlton Junior Television Workshop. Whilst attending, Rollins made her television debut on the children's series '' The Demon Headmaster'' in 1998, at the age of ten. She was also featured in various advertisements and performed at the

British Academy Children's Awards The British Academy Children's Awards were presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). They were awarded annually since 1996, before which time they were a part of the main British Academy ...

. In 1999, Rollins starred in ''Welcome To Orty Fou'' as Caroline Saunders. After leaving the workshop, Rollins began attending the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

, studying English and theatre. She then did a one-year course at

Arts Educational Schools Arts Educational Schools, or ArtsEd, is an independent performing arts school in Chiswick, West London, England. Overview ArtsEd provides specialist vocational training at secondary, further and higher education level in musical theatre an ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. In 2013, she appeared in the feature film ''Communion'', and in 2014, she auditioned for a role in the

soap opera ''

''. She took a sick day from work to attend the audition, and after a two-week process, she was given the role of Ayesha Lee. While on the series, Rollins' character's storylines included romances with co-workers Sid Vere ( Ashley Rice) and

Bear Sylvester Bear Sylvester is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''Doctors'', portrayed by Dex Lee. Lee began filming for the role in June 2019 and Bear made his first appearance on 18 November 2019, in scenes that show him attending an intervie ...

(

Dex Lee Dex Lee (born 16 May 1993) is an English actor. He began his professional career as a dancer in a touring production of ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'', before going on to make acting appearances in numerous theatre productions. Then in 201 ...

), facing prejudice due to her race and troubled upbringing and struggling with her mother's alcoholism and subsequent death, for which she won a

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

award. Rollins then starred in the 2016 short film ''From Noya'', and the 2018 short film ''Shining Tor'', for which she won Best Performance for at the 2019 Short Film Awards. In January 2020, Rollins appeared in an episode of the BBC crime drama ''

Silent Witness ''Silent Witness'' is a British crime drama television series produced by the BBC that focuses on a team of forensic pathology experts and their investigations into various crimes. The series was created by Nigel McCrery, a former murder squa ...

'' as Kate Langley. On 20 May 2020, it was announced that Rollins would be leaving ''Doctors'' after six years in the role of Ayesha. Her final scenes aired on 5 June 2020. In 2021, she starred in the second series of the ITV drama ''

''. Then in 2022, she made appearances in ''

Father Brown Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective. He is featured in 53 short stories by English author G. K. Chesterton, published between 1910 and 1936. Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intuition and ...

'' and '' Miss Scarlet and The Duke''.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rollins, Laura 1988 births Actors educated at the Arts Educational Schools Actresses from Birmingham, West Midlands Alumni of the University of Leeds Black British actresses British child actresses English film actresses English soap opera actresses English television actresses Living people