Laila Rouass starts filming on Holby City

Laila Rouass is to join the cast of Holby City as new regular character Sahira Shah the BBC officially confirmed today. Laila has already started filming with the Holby City team and will first be seen on screen in February 2011.

 

As we reported on Sunday news the actress, best known for her roles in Primeval and Footballers’ Wives, was to join the series was being reported in the press. Laila is currently starring in Spooks and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Laila said of her new role in Holby City: “I’m over the moon to be joining the cast of Holby and am enjoying bringing the character of Sahira Shah to life. Like me, Sahira is a mum so I can totally relate to the struggles she faces balancing motherhood with her working life. I have no medical knowledge whatsoever so playing a surgeon on Holby has been a real eye opener! All the cast have made me feel so at home already and I’m looking forward to getting stuck into some juicy storylines.”

Laila’s storylines will see her character compete against Jac Naylor (Rosie Marcel) for the mantle of top dog at Holby – will she succeed in a challenge where everyone else has so far failed? Sahira’s dark history with the man who has guided her career, the mysterious Hanssen (Guy Henry) will be revealed and viewers will see the apparently happily married Sahira trying to resist the growing spark between her and Greg Douglas (Edward MacLiam).

Belinda Campbell Executive Producer of Holby City said: “Laila has brought a fresh new energy to Holby City and her character has been a joy to create. Like many women in 2010, Sahira tries her best to maintain the delicate balance between work and home life. While on the surface she appears to be cool and calm, underneath it all, she is kicking madly just to keep afloat. It will be fascinating to explore what is really going on underneath the façade of perfection Sahira has created for herself. I’m sure her character will be someone a lot of viewers will recognise in themselves.”

 

 

 

Laila Rouass was most recently seen as Maya in the 9th season of BBC One’s spy/thriller series Spooks which aired its final episode of its current series on Monday. The actress also guest starred in a recent two-part The Sarah Jane Adventures story as the corrupt UNIT officer Colonel Tia Karim. In 2009 she joined the cast of ITV’s dino-drama Primeval

playing the role of Sarah Page however declined to return for the show’s fourth and fifth seasons because filming was to take place in Ireland.

 

 

The actress is probably best remembered for her role of Amber Gates in ITV’s guilty-pleasure drama Footballers’ Wives. Her character famously battled Tanya Turner (Zoe Lucker) over the affections of her bisexual husband Conrad (Ben Price). Rouass and Zoe Lucker appeared together on last year’s Strictly Come Dancing.