Michelle Hardwick

Michelle Hardwick is a British actress who appeared in Coronation Street as two different characters in the late 1990s and had a recurring role as receptionist Lizzie Hopkirk in the 1960s-set hospital drama The Royal (2003), a spinoff of Heartbeat, in which she also separately guest-starred across three episodes. She is best known for playing veterinarian Vanessa Woodfield on Emmerdale (2012), one of British soap opera's most prominent lesbian characters. She has been openly lesbian throughout her run on the show. In 2019 she married Emmerdale producer Kate Brooks, and her on-screen character has had long-running lesbian storylines, making Emmerdale one of the British soaps with the most sustained queer female representation.