Laila Rouass

Laila Rouass (née Abdesselam; born 22 June 1971)[1] is a British actress of moroccan origin. She is best known for her portrayals of Amber Gates in Footballers' Wives (2004–2006) and Sahira Shah in Holby City (2011–2012, 2021–present). She has also starred in Primeval and Spooks and been a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, in which she finished fourth.

Laila Rouass
Born
Laila Abdesselam

(1971-06-22) 22 June 1971
Stepney, London, England
NationalityBritish
Years active1999–present
TelevisionFamily Affairs
Footballers' Wives
Primeval
Strictly Come Dancing
Spooks
Holby City
The Sarah Jane Adventures
Loose Women
Spouse(s)Abselam Rouass (1990–2003)
Partner(s)Nasir Khan (2005–2008)
James Petrie (2010–2011)
Ronnie O'Sullivan (2012–present)
Children1

Early life

Rouass was born in Stepney, London to a Moroccan father and an Indian mother.[2]

Career

Rouass worked as a VJ on Channel V in India in the 1990s.[3] While on Channel V, she appeared in a music video for the band Colour Blind, directed by the then creative head of the channel, Shamin Desai.[4]

After moving back to the UK, Rouass became famous for playing the role of Bollywood actress Amber Gates in the cult ITV1 series Footballers' Wives between 2004 and 2006 and, albeit briefly, on the ITV2 spin-off series Footballers' Wives: Extra Time. She also played recurring roles on the British soaps Family Affairs and Hollyoaks,[5] as well as appearing in episodes of I Dream, Casualty and Meet the Magoons. She starred alongside Meera Syal in the television adaptation of Syal's novel, Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee.

Rouass was ranked No.87 and No.69 on FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World 2004 and FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World 2005 respectively.

In 2009 she appeared as Egyptologist Sarah Page in the third series of the ITV science-fiction series Primeval. She left the show when location of filming was changed to Dublin, for series four and five, saying it would be hard to continue participating as she was a single parent.[6]

In spring of 2010, Rouass announced that she will be making a film about Leila Khaled, who led the hijacking of a flight from Rome to Athens in 1969. Rouass stated she had funding for the film.[7]

She played Maya Lahan, a regular character introduced in the ninth series of BBC One drama Spooks which broadcast from September 2010.[8] She guest starred as the evil Colonel Karim in The Sarah Jane Adventures in October 2010.[9] Rouass then joined the cast of the BBC medical drama Holby City, appearing from February 2011 as registrar Sahira Shah.[10] She left Holby City on 17 April 2012, after just 14 months on the show, to take a break to spend time with her family. The door has been left open for her to return. Her return was later announced in January 2021 and she returned on 9 February.

She is also currently one of the presenters of "The Channel 4 TV Book Club". [11]

Strictly Come Dancing

She participated in the seventh series of Strictly Come Dancing, a BBC One reality show, paired with professional dancer Anton Du Beke, and alongside Footballers' Wives co-star Zöe Lucker.[12]

The pair made it to the last four before being voted off the show on 6 December 2009. She failed to show up for the final on 19 December 2009 to reprise her partnership with Anton Du Beke. The show's host, Bruce Forsyth, offered no reason for her absence although he did do so for the other missing celebrity, Phil Tufnell, who had influenza.

Film career

Rouass' first film was City of Dreams produced by Feroze Nadiawala, in which she starred opposite Lisa Ray and Saeed Jaffery.[5][13] During the years that she was based in India, early in her career, she acted in some Indian films, Aditya Bhattacharya's Indo-Italian Senso unico (1999) and Dev Benegal's Split Wide Open (1999).

In 2000, Rouass starred in Jag Mhundra's controversial film, Bawandar (English title; The Sand Storm),[14] about revenge rapes in Rajasthan,[15] and she made her English-language film debut in 2002 with a small role in The Four Feathers opposite Heath Ledger.[5]

She starred in The Hunt Feast (2004),[16] and in 2006 she was cast in Aditya Raj Kapoor's film Don't Stop Dreaming.[17]

Rouass also appeared in the independent British film Shoot on Sight (2007) opposite Brian Cox, Om Puri and Sadie Frost. In 2008, she appeared in two films, Freebird and the New Zealand funded Apron Strings.[18]

Personal life

In 1990, Rouass married Abdeslam Rouass in Tower Hamlets, London. They divorced in 2003.[19] She went through a religious ceremony in 2005 with Nasir Khan, a businessman, however the two never legally married.[1] In October 2006, Rouass saw a doctor regarding back pains only to find she was six months pregnant. She gave birth to a daughter in February 2007. She and Khan separated again in 2008,[20] after which Rouass brought up her daughter by herself.[21] Since February 2013, she has been engaged to professional snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan.[22]

In August 2017, Rouass was caught up in the Barcelona terrorist attack, writing on Twitter during the incident that she was hiding in a restaurant freezer.[23]

Rouass is Muslim.[24]

Filmography
Film performances
Year Title Role Notes
1999 Senso unico Yasmine
1999 Split Wide Open Nandita
2000 Bawandar Amy
2002 The Four Feathers Maya
2003 Two Minutes Sonita Short
2007 Shoot on Sight Ruby Kaur
2008 Apron Strings Anita
2008 Freebird Lucinda
2011 Conan the Barbarian Fialla, Conan's Mother
Television performances
Year Title Role Notes
2001 Family Affairs Tanya Ayuba
2002 The Comedy Lab 1 episode: "Meet the Mangoons"
2002 Casualty Mandy Kellaway 1 episode: "You're Going Home in the Back of an Ambulance"
2003 Hollyoaks Dale Jackson
2004 I Dream Lollie Das 1 episode: "Toon in Love"
2004–2006 Footballers' Wives Amber Gates
2005 Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee Tania
2005 Footballers' Wive$: Extra Time Amber Gates
2005 Meet the Mangoons Anita 1 episode: "Stairway to Havan"
2006 Casualty Gina Marshall 1 episode: "All Through the Night"
2009 Primeval Sarah Page Main cast, season 3
2010 The Sarah Jane Adventures Colonel Tia Karim 2 episodes: "Death of the Doctor" (Part 1 and 2)
2010 Spooks Maya Lahan
2011–2012, 2021– Holby City Sahira Shah Main cast
2011 Sadie J Maddy 1 episode: "Robobootylicious"
2014 Midsomer Murders Stephanie King 1 episode - "The Flying Club"
2015 The Royals Deputy Prime Minister Rani
2016 Stella Maria
2016 The Lodge Olivia 4 Episodes
2018 Safe Lauren

References
  1. "Rouass fibbed about her age and faked marriage to millionaire". News of the World. News Group Newspapers. 26 September 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  2. Rouass, Laila (22 February 2004). "Star Chat: I'm really a good girl!; Footballers' Wives star Laila Rouass, 28, might play a swinging schemer, but in real life the finishing schooled actress says she's sweet and innocent". The People (Interview). Interviewed by Alex Tate and Steven Smith. MGN Ltd.
  3. "The Language of Fashion". Outlook. India: The Outlook Group. 19 June 1996. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  4. Joshi, Namrata (24 April 2000). "Givin' It A Good Shot". Outlook. India: The Outlook Group. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  5. "Hollyoaks – Laila Rouass". Channel 4. 7 March 2003. Archived from the original on 14 July 2007. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  6. Kilkelly, Daniel (12 May 2010). "Laila Rouass explains 'Primeval' exit". Digital Spy. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  7. Walker, Tim (10 March 2010). "Footballers' Wives star Laila Rouass films life of terrorist Leila Khaled". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  8. Wightman, Catriona (16 September 2010). "'Spooks' – Meet The Newbies: Laila Rouass". Digital Spy. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
  9. "The Sarah Jane Adventures – Death of the Doctor". BBC. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  10. Kilkelly, Daniel (7 November 2010). "Laila Rouass joins 'Holby City'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
  11. The TV Book Club – Presenters – Laila Rouass – Channel 4
  12. Conlan, Tara (5 October 2009). "Strictly Come Dancing: BBC receives scores of complaints over racist remark". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  13. Sehgal, Nutan (23 August 2001). "Wisecracking their way to Bollywood". The Tribune. Chandigarh, India: The Tribune Trust. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  14. "Sandstorm". Film.com. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  15. Marks, Loma-Ann (16 July 2008). "Laila Rouass". Open. Open Magazine Ltd. Archived from the original on 7 November 2010. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  16. "Hunt Feast shooting in Syria with Iraq theme". FilmFestivals.com. 2004. Archived from the original on 7 April 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  17. "Suniel Shetty's films incl. new projects – in chronological order". kabir-bedi.com. Archived from the original on 7 September 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  18. "Laila Rouass". Channel 4. 17 December 2010. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
  19. Cummins, Fiona (11 February 2004). "My Secret Sexless Marriage; Footballers' Wives Sensation". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
  20. Dorrian, Gareth (7 September 2008). "TV Laila boots out cheating hubby". The People. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
  21. "'I'm quite fiery, but Ronnie O'Sullivan calms me down,' says Laila Rouass". belfasttelegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  22. "Snooker star Ronnie rockets to happiness after proposing to Laila Rouass". Hello. 4 February 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  23. "Strictly Come Dancing and Holby City's Laila Rouass caught up in Barcelona attack – BBC Newsbeat". BBC Newsbeat. 18 August 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  24. @lailarouass (10 May 2019). "Another thing..I'm a Muslim. I have and continue to visit (with my 12 year old daughter) churches, synagogues, Gudwaras, Buddhist temples, mosques etc. Here's a pic of my daughter and I in church a few weeks ago" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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