Roxy Shahidi

Roxy Shahidi is an English actress, wellbeing speaker and yoga teacher, best known for her role as Leyla Harding on ITV’s Emmerdale. With a career spanning more than 16 years on prime-time television, she brings credibility, warmth and lived experience to the stage. As a speaker, Roxy is recognised for her work around confidence, overcoming anxiety, empowerment and wellness. Alongside her acting career, she is the Founder of YogaRox.UK, a successful online wellbeing platform, making her voice both relevant and practical for modern audiences navigating pressure, visibility and change.

Roxy’s early career was shaped by a deep commitment to performance, creativity and community. Raised in Manchester, she trained with Contact Young Actors Company before working as a drama workshop leader, delivering programmes that built confidence and communication skills in young people. Her theatre background includes work with leading UK venues, experiences that demanded resilience, emotional openness and presence. During this period, Roxy began practising yoga as a way to manage nerves, self-doubt and performance anxiety. What started as a physical support soon became a mindset tool, helping her develop focus, self-belief and emotional regulation. These formative years underpin her current speaking work on overcoming anxiety as a performer and building confidence and public speaking skills under pressure.

Her career achievements reflect both longevity and evolution. Roxy joined Emmerdale in 2008 and went on to become one of the show’s most recognisable faces, completing over a decade as a regular cast member across two major stints. Alongside acting, she trained as a yoga teacher and spent more than ten years teaching, later launching YogaRox.UK, now home to live classes, on-demand content and a growing community of women. Roxy also set up a Yoga Lunch Club in the Creative Quarter in Hockley, Greater Nottingham. In 2022, Roxy expanded into writing, becoming a screenwriter signed to United Agents, co-writing episodes for major BBC dramas. Her openness around anxiety, confidence and self-belief led to a wider public platform, including her appearance on Dancing on Ice in 2024, where she spoke candidly about fear, visibility and resilience.

Roxy is hired as a speaker because she speaks honestly about confidence and public speaking, overcoming anxiety as a performer, and the realities of women in midlife, empowerment and wellness. Her talks are grounded, practical and deeply human, blending personal stories with tools audiences can use immediately. She explores how to build resilience, focus and self-belief in demanding environments, whether stepping onto a stage, leading a team or navigating personal change. Roxy connects strongly with audiences because she understands pressure from the inside.