Rokhsaneh Ghawam-Shahidi ( fa, رخسانه قوام شهيدي; born 14 March 1983) is an English actress. She is known for portraying the role of

Leyla Harding Leyla Harding (also Cavanagh) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera, ''Emmerdale'', played by Roxy Shahidi. She made her first on-screen appearance on 11 August 2008 and was introduced by series producer, Anita Turner. Th ...

in ITV soap ''

Emmerdale ''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British soap opera that is broadcast on ITV1. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffa ...

''.

Career

Theatre

Shahidi began her career as part of Contact Young Actors Company in 2004 and went on to work for Peskar Productions as a drama workshop leader in

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, w ...

and

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ce ...

. Her theatre credits include '' East is East'', ''Janus'' (for

West Yorkshire Playhouse Leeds Playhouse is a theatre in the city centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire. Having originally opened in 1970 in a different location in Leeds, it reopened as West Yorkshire Playhouse, on Quarry Hill, in March 1990. After a refurbishment in 2018-20 ...

), ''

Christie Malry's Own Double Entry ''Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry'' (1973) is the penultimate novel by the late British avant-garde novelist B. S. Johnson. It is the metafictional account of a disaffected young man, Christie Malry, who applies the principles of double-entry b ...

'' at the

Palace Theatre, Manchester The Palace Theatre, Manchester, is one of the main theatres in Manchester, England. It is situated on Oxford Street, on the north-east corner of the intersection with Whitworth Street. The Palace and its sister theatre the Opera House on Quay S ...

, ''Freshly Scratched'' (for the

Battersea Arts Centre The Battersea Arts Centre ("BAC") is a performance space specialising in theatre productions. Located near Clapham Junction railway station in Battersea, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, it was formerly Battersea Town Hall. It is a Grade I ...

) and '' Rafta, Rafta...'' at the National Theatre. She has also acted in

radio plays Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

, e.g. Nadeem Aslam's ''

Maps for Lost Lovers ''Maps for Lost Lovers'' is a novel by the British Pakistani writer Nadeem Aslam. It was first published by Faber and Faber in 2004. Ostensibly about the murder of a pair of lovers, the book is in fact a minute dissection of working-class Pakis ...

''. From November 2012 through to January 2013 she played the role of Shahrazad in the Manchester Library Theatre Company performances of

Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

at the Lowry Theatre in Salford, near Manchester.

Television

Shahidi has appeared on British television in shows such as ''

Sinchronicity ''Sinchronicity'' is a six-part comedy-drama series broadcast on BBC Three in the United Kingdom (16 July 2006 — 20 August 2006). Set in Manchester, the programme is narrated by Nathan (Paul Chequer) and focuses on the love triangle of him, ...

'' and ''

'', playing the part of

from 2008 to 2011. Shahidi returned to ''Emmerdale'' on 25 December 2013.

Personal life

Ghawam-Shahidi was born to an Iranian father and an English mother, and grew up in Whalley Range in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. She became a vegetarian at the age of 8, and a vegan since the age of 21. She is married to

Arsher Ali Arsher Ali (born 9 April 1984) is an English actor. He has played various TV and film roles, and is a regular lead performer at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. Personal life Ali is of Pakistani descent. He is a graduate ...

. They have one child together born in 2018. Shahidi has set up a Yoga Lunch Club in the Creative Quarter in

Hockley Hockley is a large village and civil parish in Essex in the East of England located between Chelmsford and Southend-on-Sea, or, more specifically, between Rayleigh and Rochford. It came to prominence during the coming of the railway in the 1890 ...

Greater Nottingham The Nottingham Built-up Area (BUA), Nottingham Urban Area, or Greater Nottingham is an area of land defined by the Office for National Statistics as which is built upon, with nearby areas linked if within 200 metres - see the List of urban ...

where she also is based. She also has a YouTube channel to share yoga videos.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* Living people 1983 births British actresses of Asian descent English television actresses English stage actresses English radio actresses Actresses from Manchester English people of Iranian descent English soap opera actresses {{England-actor-stub