Holly Woodhouse

Following an illustrious career spanning athlete/event management and corporate law in Australia, Holly returned to acting in 2014 after training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (New York campus) under the tutelage of Jody Wood, Harry O'Reilly, Barbara Rubin and Liz Ortiz-Mackes. Most recently Holly made her debut on BBC One in the popular murder mystery game show, Armchair Detectives, produced by Tiger Aspect Productions - playing the role of Emma Kean in Episode 11 (School's Out for Murder). But Holly's very first stage appearance was at the age of 3 and it was love at first sight...of the audience! Throughout her childhood she performed with a children's theatre group and one summer successfully auditioned for a place in the Scottish Youth Theatre (Glasgow, Scotland). This was the turning point for Holly as it gave her the confidence and inspiration to start auditioning for television roles and, after the requisite number of knock-backs, Holly got her first break on Dramarama's Silver (ITV) featuring Gareth Thomas and directed by Jim McCann, which led to a minor role on Take the High Road (STV) throughout 1986. A career change for Holly's parents took her to the other side of the world, first to New Zealand where she studied and gained a Bachelor of Laws at Victoria University of Wellington, and 4 years later to Australia where Holly began her corporate career and also studied and gained a Master of Laws at the University of Sydney. "If I was relocating to New Zealand now," says Holly, "my acting career may have been able to continue given the phenomenal success of Sir Peter Jackson, but in the late '80s the New Zealand film industry was small-scale and the closest I got to it was flatting with Christian River's sister!" (Christian was at that time a story board artist on Sir Peter's zombie film Dead Alive). Holly claims to have no regrets, though, as she loved working as a lawyer and was very fortunate to be offered some amazing opportunities in other commercial areas including event management, athlete management and publishing. Plus, as a means to pay for her legal education, Holly worked as a model "I would never have been given the chance to do these amazing things if life had worked out as I had originally planned!" exclaims Holly. In 2014 Holly found herself based in Scotland once more, with the opportunity to pick up the threads of her acting career. Never in her wildest dreams did Holly think she would get this chance - for her, it is truly a dream come true.