She’s heading back to school.

Former Hollyoaks star Niamh Blackshaw has landed a new soap role.

The actor, who played Juliet Nightingale, exited Hollyoaks in 2023 when her terminally ill character passed away. After leaving the soap, Blackshaw appeared in the BBC drama series The Jetty, playing the role of Rosie.

Now, The Sun reports that the star is heading back to school, as she joins the cast of Waterloo Road.

Blackshaw’s involvement in the show was revealed when a Waterloo Road director tagged her, and other cast and crew members, in series of pictures. Director Ruth Carney shared images of the clapperboards that were used during filming that took place over the summer.
Blackshaw is not the only new face that will be appearing on season 14 of Waterloo Road.

The chaotic school has welcomed brand-new headteacher Steve Savage (Jason Manford), and maths teacher Nisha Chandra (Saira Choudhry) as it embraces its academy status.

There are also new students roaming the halls, including Steve’s son Billy Savage (Olly Rhodes), troubled year 11 pupil Brian ‘Boz’ Osbourne (Nathan Wood), Jared Jones (Matthew Khan), and Luca Smith (Danny Murphy).

Newbies Aleena Qureshi (Sonya Nisa) and Lois Taylor-Brown (Miya Ocego) will be joining the academy as well.

The first episode of season 14 aired on September 10 and saw returning teacher Joe Casey struggle as acting head, before handing the reins over to Steve. All eight episodes of the new season landed on BBC iPlayer on the same day.

Hollyoaks airs on Mondays-Wednesdays with its Channel 4 streaming premiere at 7am, then an E4 broadcast the same night at 7pm. Full episodes are also released on YouTube a week after their Channel 4 release.