# Laila Rouass

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

## Early life

Laila Abdesselam was born on 22 June 1971 to an Indian mother and a Moroccan father, she grew up with six siblings in Tower Hamlets in the East End of London. She was raised Muslim but is now non-practising, although she calls the Islamic faith an important part of her identity.

## Career

Rouass worked as a VJ on Channel V in India in the 1990s. 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.
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, in the ITV2 spin-off series Footballers' Wives: Extra Time. She also played recurring roles in the British soaps Family Affairs and Hollyoaks, 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 the location of filming was changed to Dublin for series four and five, saying it would be hard to continue participating, for she was a single parent; and her character was subsequently killed off-screen between the third and fourth series.
In spring of 2010, Rouass announced that she would 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.
She played Maya Lahan, a regular character introduced in the ninth series of BBC One drama Spooks which broadcast from September 2010. She guest starred as the evil Colonel Karim in The Sarah Jane Adventures in October 2010. Rouass then joined the cast of the BBC medical drama Holby City, appearing from February 2011 as registrar Sahira Shah. 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. She returned to the role of Sahira Shah on 9 February 2021.
In 2014 She Appeared In Midsomer Murders as Stephanie King in The Flying Club & then return again as Vanessa Debouverie in 2022 episode A Grain of Truth
She is also currently one of the presenters of "The Channel 4 TV Book Club".
In July 2024, it was announced that Rouass would be joining the BBC soap opera EastEnders as Ayesha Siddhu, a woman from Suki Panesar's past.

### 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.
The pair made it to the last four before being voted off the show on 6 December 2009. She was unable to participate in the final on 19 December 2009 to reprise her partnership with Anton Du Beke due to a last-minute personal emergency.

### Film career

Rouass' first film was City of Dreams produced by Feroze Nadiawala, in which she starred opposite Lisa Ray and Saeed Jaffrey. 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), about revenge rapes in Rajasthan, and she made her English-language film debut in 2002 with a small role in The Four Feathers opposite Heath Ledger.
She starred in The Hunt Feast (2004), and in 2006 she was cast in Aditya Raj Kapoor's film Don't Stop Dreaming.
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.
Rouass appeared in the Harlan Coben Netflix original 8 part mini-series Safe where she played Lauren Marshall.

## Personal life

In 1990, she married family friend Abdeslam Rouass, but the couple divorced in 2003 without having consummated their marriage. Rouass then lived with London businessman Nasir Khan, with whom she held a commitment ceremony in 2005 before family and friends. She later faced criticism for referring to herself and Khan as a married couple, even though the ceremony had no legal standing. She gave birth to their daughter Inez in February 2007, but ended her relationship with Khan shortly afterwards. In 2011, Khan was sentenced to nine years in prison for his money-laundering role in a £250 million VAT fraud conspiracy.
From 2010 to 2011, Rouass dated celebrity chef James Petrie. In 2012, she began dating professional snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan, to whom she became engaged in February 2013. Rouass and O'Sullivan appeared together as guests on BBC's Saturday Kitchen in February 2021. In February 2022, Rouass announced on social media that the couple had ended their relationship, but they subsequently reconciled. She features in the 2023 documentary about his playing career, Ronnie O'Sullivan: The Edge of Everything.
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.

## 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 film |
| 2007 | Shoot on Sight | Ruby Kaur | |
| 2007 | A Cheat in the Park | Laila | Short film |
| 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 | 2 episodes |
| 2002 | Comedy Lab | The Unbelievably Beautiful Woman | Episode: "Meet the Magoons" |
| 2002 | Casualty | Mandy Kellaway | Episode: "You're Going Home in the Back of an Ambulance" |
| 2003 | Hollyoaks | Dale Jackson | 35 episodes |
| 2004 | I Dream | Lollie Das | Episode: "Toone in Love" |
| 2004–2006 | Footballers' Wives | Amber Gates | 22 episodes |
| 2005 | Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee | Tania | Mini-series, 3 episodes |
| 2005 | Footballers' Wives: Extra Time | Amber Gates | 3 episodes |
| 2005 | Meet the Magoons | Anita | Episode: "Stairway to Havan" |
| 2006 | Casualty | Gina Marshall | Episode: "All Through the Night" |
| 2009 | Primeval | Sarah Page | Main cast. Series 3, 10 episodes |
| 2010 | The Sarah Jane Adventures | Colonel Tia Karim | 2 episodes: "Death of the Doctor: Parts One & Two" |
| 2010 | Spooks | Maya Lahan | 7 episodes |
| 2011–2012, 2021 | Holby City | Sahira Shah | Main cast, 60 episodes |
| 2011 | Sadie J | Maddy | Episode: "Robobootylicious" |
| 2014 | Midsomer Murders | Stephanie King | Episode: "The Flying Club" |
| 2015–2016 | The Royals | Rani, Deputy Prime Minister | 5 episodes |
| 2016 | Stella | Maria | 8 episodes |
| 2016 | The Lodge | Olivia | 4 episodes |
| 2018 | Safe | Lauren Marshall | Mini-series, 5 episodes |
| 2018 | Age Before Beauty | Shameem Shah | 3 episodes |
| 2022 | Traces | Azra McKinven | 6 episodes |
| 2022 | Midsomer Murders | Vanessa Debouverie | Episode: "A Grain of Truth" |
| 2023 | The Effects of Lying | Sangeeta | Television film |
| 2023 | London Kills | DI Yasmin Rafiq | 2 episodes: "Wake-up Call" and "Vandetta" |
| 2024 | Tell Me Everything | Samira | Series 2, Episode 2 |
| 2024 | EastEnders | Ayesha Siddhu | Guest appearance |

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result | Ref. |
| 2003 | The British Soap Awards | Sexiest Female | Hollyoaks | Nominated | |
| 2012 | 17th National Television Awards | Drama Performance: Female | Holby City | Nominated | |