Roxy Shahidi
Roxy Shahidi (Rokhsaneh Ghawam-Shahidi) is an English actress best known for playing Leyla Harding in the popular ITV soap Emmerdale from 2011 to 2025. She was also a contestant on Dancing on Ice in 2024.
Roxy decided to leave Emmerdale in 2025 to pursue other interests. She is also a qualified yoga teacher and shares yoga videos on her YouTube channel, YogaRox.
Roxy became a vegetarian at eight years old, when she realised the ‘food’ she was eating used to be alive. Later, at the age of 21, Roxy made the switch to veganism:
“I became vegetarian when I was eight and it was the first time that I realised the meat that I was eating used to be alive and fluffy. I thought it was so gross that I decided there and then I was going to become veggie (…) That was until I was about 21. Then I suffered with quite bad acne that I couldn’t get rid of and my mum suggested cutting out dairy as she’d read that it could be related to hormonal imbalances. I started reading into the issues about the treatment of dairy cows and other factory farmed animals and that made me decide to become vegan. I ended up living on houmous for the first six months but I was 21 then and now I’m much more informed about how to make great-tasting, healthy vegan meals.”
