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= = = Race and charity work = = =
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Throughout her career , Ayola has been outspoken on the subject of racial discrimination in the entertainment industry . Describing her motivation , she states : " I am not an overtly political person . I just want fairness " . Ayola believes that black actors receive less recognition than their white counterparts , explaining ; " If you get a show with six stars and one is black you are more likely to see interviews with the five white actors . [ ... ] They are not being sold as a reason to watch . " She believes that her career would have taken her in a different direction were she not of ethnic origin , stating : " I could not have played any of the roles I have played on TV if I was white [ ... ] I am very aware of where the glass ceiling is and it 's still very low and expectations are still very low " . She has noted having casting directors accept the notion of characters being both black and Welsh to be a particular problem , explaining that : " I get offered a lot of very different roles , but they 're never Welsh . [ ... ] The one time I was asked to play a Welsh character on screen was in Tiger Bay for BBC Wales , but I know if that series had been called Radyr Park or Cyncoed Close I wouldn 't have been in it " . In 2001 , Ayola founded a production company and directed a short film entitled Persephone 's Playground . She presented the film at the Cannes film festival , using it as part of her campaign for increased black representation in theatre , films and television . The project , however , was largely unsuccessful , with Ayola stating : " it just made me decide that if there 's anything I don 't want to do , it 's produce films , because I 'm rubbish at it . I was so bad with the budget that I just said yes to everything and then had to worry about how to pay for things at the end . " In 2008 , Ayola offered her support to the Action for Southern Africa campaign Dignity ! Period , aiming to provide affordable sanitary protection to Zimbabwean women .
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= = = Awards = = =
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= = Personal life = =
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During a 1998 production of Hamlet , Ayola met her future husband , fellow actor Adam Smethurst – son of Love Thy Neighbour star Jack Smethurst . They met again two years later , during a production of Twelfth Night , and went on to become a couple . The pair married in May 2004 , and Ayola gave birth to their first daughter in July that year . Their second daughter was born in January 2009 .
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= = Filmography = =
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Ayola has undertaken the following roles from her screen and televisual debut in 1993 , to the present day .
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= = = Television roles = = =
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