A former Coronation Street actress has signed up to rival soap Waterloo Road, eight years after she appeared on the cobbles. Mollie Winnard is heading back to soap land, years after she starred in Coronation Street. Mollie played waitress Kayla Clifton on the ITV soap back in 2018 but will now be heading to BBC drama Waterloo Road.
Mollie will play new teacher Gemma Tully, who has recently qualified, in the new series of the BBC show and will appear in eight episodes of the new series. It remains unclear whether she will stay on the show permanently or what her storylines will be.
She starred in Corrie as waitress Kayla, who worked at Speed Daal. She was the daughter of Neil Clifton and targeted Corrie favourites Bethany Platt and Craig Tinker in a revenge storyline.
As well as her role in Coronation Street, Mollie also starred in the most recent series of Silent Witness. Sharing her excitement of working on the show, she said: "Meet DI Ferris. Episodes 1 & 2 of the new series of Silent Witness out now on BBC 1 & BBC IPlayer. Such a lovely job with lovely cast and crew! Thank you for making this experience and my first on set birthday a special one!"
She also has a starring role on period drama All Creatures Great and Small, where she plays Maggie. Mollie went to the National Television Awards in 2023 with the cast of Happy Valley, which she also had a key role in.
"When I was about 16 years old, an aspiring actor, I wrote in a notebook all the actors I wanted to work with and because of watching Happy Valley, Sarah Lancashire and Siobhan Finneran were at the top of the list," she said as she reflected on the show. "So I honestly feel so privileged to have experienced the other night and I will never be able to put into words how grateful I am to have been a part of such an iconic and one of my all time favourite shows. To work with so many talented individuals, cast, crew and the whole team was unreal. And of course working with the legendary Sally Wainwright was a dream come true and will forever be a highlight in my career. Happy Valley, you will always have my heart."
