How to Get Cast on ‘Hollyoaks’

Hollyoaks is a soap aimed at younger audiences. It airs every weekday on Channel Four; it also puts out occasional hourlong specials dealing with more adult themes, often marketed as Late Night Hollyoaks or Hollyoaks Later.   

Although the show usually airs at teatime, it never shies away from hard-hitting storylines about hot-button topics like anorexia, homophobia, far-right extremism, skin bleaching, self-harm, and child abuse. One of the show’s most notable stories involved the sexual assault of popular character Luke Morgan, played by Gary Lucy. As the first male rape featured in a British soap, the storyline made national headlines. Basically, if an issue affects young Brits, Hollyoaks is all over it.  

But the show isn’t just for UK audiences. Hollyoaks has also launched in the U.S. on Hulu and shares mobile content on Snapchat. Maybe hot Brits being dramatic teamed with occasional bonkers storylines—like Carmel McQueen (Gemma Merna) seeing the face of Jesus in a potato—really does have true global appeal?

Sir Phil Redmond created the series. He also co-created, wrote on, and produced another top Channel 4 soap, Brookside, which ran from 1982–2003, and created legendary kids’ show Grange Hill (1978–2008). 

Initially aimed at adolescents, Hollyoaks premiered on 23 Oct. 1995. In the 28 years since, the series has won the coveted Best British Soap Award twice.  

Remembering its early years, Redmond told the Guardian in 2020, “I always wanted to make a show for the post-secondary school years. It was going to be a rite of passage for young adults, a comedy on the aspirational side of teenage life. It was something we had never seen on British TV before, so much so that the commissioners didn’t think it would work, since they assumed young adults were always out and never in front of screens. It’s laughable how much that has changed now.   

“After the first run of episodes, the audience gave us the feedback that they wanted the British context in the show,” Redmond continued. “Where’s the sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll? So we began to write from life, and after that, the young audience was with us.”

The attractiveness of the average Hollyoaks resident probably helps too. Perma-tanned hunks and hunkesses with perfect smiles and perfect bodies are common on the streets of the titular suburb. Hotties including Ricky Whittle (American Gods, The 100), Emmett J. Scanlan (Peaky Blinders, Gangs of London), and Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones, F9: The Fast Saga) have all done their time in the ’Oaks.

Hollyoaks is set in a fictional suburb of the Northern city of Chester. The show is now mainly filmed about an hour away at Lime Pictures Studios in Liverpool. The show takes full advantage of its large exterior set. And like all British soaps, the characters hang out at a pub, the Dog in the Pond. There was once a cafe, Salon de Thé de Marnie, but it was blown up in one of the show’s more explosive storylines. 

If you want to see behind-the-scenes action, check out Hollyoaks Access All Areas, which gives fans the full download on life in the village. Actors who join the Hollyoaks cast should expect to live locally near Liverpool.

Currently, Lime Pictures’ Peter Hunt is the series’ primary CD. Before joining the company in 2015, he began his career as an actor—so he knows what you’re going through. 

Hunt broke down the Hollyoaks casting process for Mandy: “It has a big cast because we make so many episodes. It’s still shot single-camera, so there’s up to five or six film crews at any one point, filming five episodes around one building. It’s a bit crazy. So that is managing actors coming in and out, both new regulars [and] semi-regulars. But also, as with any soap, there’s always lots of death and marriages that involve all sorts of guest players.

“I’m really in three different time periods within the story, watching what goes out on telly, thinking long-term about characters that are going to be arriving within the next 18 months,” he continued. “And I’m also thinking about what we’re casting right now in terms of the episodic scripts.”

Peter likes to keep his talent search fresh by scouting websites and casting platforms, as well as attending drama school showcases. “I also find quite a lot of actors at part-time evening workshops and other workshops throughout the country,” he said. “I go to pub theatre and watch show reels and clips that people send me. I think it’s down to the actor to work out what kind of shows they’re right for and then find out the best method of getting themselves seen. It just means you’ve got to be cleverer than other people and think of ways to do that.” 

He advises actors to keep their show reels short and focused on their performances. And stay away from montages—he hates them. He prefers dialogue scenes rather than monologues. He also encourages actors to showcase their personalities and creativity.  

As always, the place to begin when you want to get cast on a show is to actually watch it. Ask yourself whether or not you’re suited to the series, and consider the logistics of a hectic filming schedule based in Liverpool. Then, make sure your headshots, CV, and show reel are up to scratch. Visit Hunt’s website for information on how to get in touch via email or post.

It’s probably best to look to the wisdom of the series’ current and former stars. Emmanuel started her career on Hollyoaks before making a successful go Stateside.

“Auditioning is psychological, so take a moment to compose yourself,” she told us. “There’s a pressure that comes into the room that you can’t control; time feels like it lasts forever. You have to know that taking a moment to center yourself to start again is really important. It doesn’t always work, and I’m bumbling through it—and that happens, too, and that’s OK; that’s just life. But the best way to not be nervous is to be super prepared.” 

Emmanuel says she tries to be off-book for the audition so she can relax into her performance. “I’ll look up the character breakdown and see how I can apply that to the scene, and I come up with ideas and variations on that and make subtle choices—and that’s what I go into the audition with. A lot of the groundwork is done beforehand, and the more time you spend on it and the more times you read it and play with it, the more prepared you are with the direction you’re given in casting. But then sometimes [the audition] is tomorrow, and you just have to do the best you can.”          

Hunt says that positivity is key when you’re auditioning. “If you’ve made it into the room, people think you’re good, so you have to go in there and live up to that. Have the same confidence that everybody else in the room does,” he advised. “Be the kind of person that people want to work with. 

“Often, I’ve been sat with directors when they’ve made the choice between two people for a guest role in an episode, where both of them could equally do the job,” he continued. “I ask them what swayed the decision, and they say, ‘Because after a 12-hour night shoot, that’s the person that I’d want to go for a beer with,’ or, ‘That’s the person that I can imagine being a team player and keeping us going.’ It’s about who you want to work with as much as the talent that people demonstrate.”