Emmerdale star Lisa Riley has been awarded an MBE in the King's Birthday Honours list 2026, making history as the first cast member from the ITV soap to receive the prestigious honour. The actress, best known for playing Mandy Dingle, is being recognised for her services to drama and charity.
A Double Celebration for Lisa Riley
The honour comes at a special time for Riley, who will celebrate her 50th birthday on July 13. Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Saturday, June 13, she described the award as the best birthday present. 'It's unbelievable, it's humbling and it's just amazing. I can't deny, I feel on top of the world,' she said.
Charity Work and Personal Loss
Riley's mother, Cath, passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2012, after being diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. Since then, the actress has used her platform to raise awareness and support cancer charities. 'I'm so proud to be an ambassador for breast cancer now. The reason is I did lose my mum to cancer and I wanted to use my platform to kind of go 'I get it, I understand,'' she explained.
She added: 'In our industry we get asked every single day to be part of a charity but I wanted to be true to myself and be authentic and only work with charities that I feel sing from my own personal hymn sheet.'
Support from Emmerdale Family
Riley shared the news with her Emmerdale castmates via a WhatsApp group, describing their reaction as 'gleaming with pride.' She said: 'Yesterday my beloved Dingle family at Emmerdale - we Dingle WhatsApp group and I was able to share it with my work family and they were all gleaming with pride for me and they said it was well deserved after all these years.'
The star also took to Instagram, writing: 'So here's the news I've been holding as a massive secret for months and months - I am the HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD - so incredibly humbled to my core - LISA RILEY MBE, has a nice ring to it!!!!'
BBC Breakfast airs daily from 6am on BBC One and iPlayer, while Emmerdale airs weeknights at 8pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
