Lena Kaur
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Lena Kaur (born 1986) is a London-based British actress, perhaps best known for her role as
Leila Roy Leila Roy is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera ''Hollyoaks'', played by Lena Kaur. The character made her first appearance in June 2008. In November 2009, it was announced that Kaur had decided to leave Hollyoaks. Lena m ...
in Channel 4 soap ''
Hollyoaks ''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which began airing on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was created by Phil Redmond, who had previously conceived the soap opera '' Brookside''. Since 2005, episodes have been aired on sister channel E4 a ...
''.


Career

Lena Kaur grew up in
Almondbury Almondbury () is a village south-east of Huddersfield town centre in West Yorkshire, England. The population of Almondbury in 2001 was 7,368 increasing to 18,346 at the 2011 Census. Almondbury appears in the ''Domesday Book'' as "Almondeberi ...
in
Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...
,
West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...
and is of Asian descent. She attended Almondbury High School and then New College which helped her achieve her dream of being an actress. She studied acting at
Rose Bruford College Rose Bruford College (formerly Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance) is a drama school in the south London suburb of Sidcup. The college has degree programmes in acting, actor musicianship, directing, theatre arts and various discipl ...
,
Sidcup Sidcup is an area of south-east London, England, primarily in the London Borough of Bexley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, bordering the London Boroughs of Bromley and Greenwich. Before the creation of Greater London in 1965, it was in the ...
,
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, graduating in 2007. Later that year she was part of the original cast of
BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, cur ...
comedy sketch show
Scallywagga ''Scallywagga'' is a British comedy sketch show, written by Stuart Kenworthy, who has worked on Green Wing and Smack the Pony. The executive producer of series one was Kenton Allen, and the producer was Jon Montague. The pilot episode aired on 2 ...
, in which she played multiple characters. After successfully being cast as Leila Roy, she joined the cast of ''
Hollyoaks ''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which began airing on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was created by Phil Redmond, who had previously conceived the soap opera '' Brookside''. Since 2005, episodes have been aired on sister channel E4 a ...
'' in summer 2008. In August 2008, Lena Kaur praised ''Hollyoaks'' producer
Bryan Kirkwood Bryan Kirkwood (born 1976) is a British television producer. He was the producer of the Channel 4 soap opera ''Hollyoaks'' from 2006 until 2009, and was the executive producer of the BBC soap ''EastEnders'' from 2010 until 2012. He returned as ...
for not stereotyping Asians on the programme. Speaking to ''Take 5'' magazine, she stated, "The storylines for me and
Stephen Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...
( Ravi) aren't being dictated by the colour of our skin. We're both British Asians in real life as well as in the show. We are both totally westernised. We've been brought up in Britain, so the storylines will reflect people like Stephen and me." Kaur announced her decision to leave to pursue new challenges in late 2009, and made her last appearance as Leila in January 2010. In 2011 she appeared as Alicia Patel in ''
Torchwood ''Torchwood'' is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. A spin-off of the 2005 revival of ''Doctor Who'', it aired from 2006 to 2011. The show shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growin ...
's'' fourth series; '' Torchwood: Miracle Day'' airing on
BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
and US premium television network Starz. In November 2016 she appeared in Stratford upon Avon at the Swan Theatre with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the Rover. (https://www.rsc.org.uk/the-rover/production-photos)


Selected filmography


References


External links


''Leila Roy''
on the
Hollyoaks website
* Alumni of Rose Bruford College British actresses of South Asian descent Actresses from Yorkshire Actresses from Huddersfield English Sikhs 1986 births English television actresses English voice actresses English soap opera actresses English film actresses Living people {{england-stage-actor-stub