Emma Rigby

Emma Rigby is an English actress. She is best known for playing the role of Hannah Ashworth in long running soap opera Hollyoaks and Gemma in BBC One drama series Prisoners' Wives which first aired on 31st January 2012.

Emma was born in St Helens, Merseyside and has one older sister, Charlotte. She attended De La Salle high school in St Helens but left in 2006 to focus on her role as Hannah Ashworth in Hollyoaks. Despite her busy filming schedule in Hollyoaks Rigby received 9 A* In her GCSE exam results.

Rigby's first acting role was as Lisa Gunstone in Born and Bred. Before getting the role as Hannah Ashworth in Hollyoaks, Rigby had a few minor roles and appeared in popular soap Brookside as Elena Jones. Aswell as acting, Rigby has also done some modelling work. In 2005, Rigby got the role as Hannah Ashworth in Hollyoaks at the young age of 15. Emma was given praise and recognition for her anorexia storyline in which she was nominated for various awards.

In November 2009, Rigby announced she was quitting Hollyoaks to pursue other projects, and would remain on-screen until June 2010. However, after meeting's with soap bosses, it was later confirmed that Rigby had extended her contract for an additional six months and would now remain on-screen until February 2010. Rigby's final episode aired on February 11th 2010. In July 2010, Emma made her debut in the west end psycho-sexual thriller musical Wolfboy. Rigby had a non-singing part, playing the role of nurse Cherry. Emma received positive feedback from critics. In 2011 she starred as Brandy Mulligan in online series Becoming Human She also had a main role in British horror film Demons Never Die as Samantha and then later on in 2011 she had a minor role in the first episode of C4 comedy Fresh Meat as Rachel. In 2012 she had a guest role in Pramface as Mike's Blind Date Carrie-Ann.

In December 2011 it was announced that Rigby would be starring in brand new six-part drama series Prisoners' Wives along with Jonas Armstrong. The show's first episode aired on 31 January 2012 with Rigby playing Gemma Roscoe, a young pregnant girl whose life falls apart when her husband is arrested for murder. The sixth and final episode of the series aired on 6th March 2012.