10 Facts About… Fiona Wade (Emmerdale’s Priya)
lnsidesoap YOUR BRIEFING ON THE WOMAN BEHIND EMMERDALE’S PRIYA…
1 Fiona Sarah Wade was born on 20 March 1979 in
Enfield, London – the only child to her English father, Colin, and her Filipino mother, Terisita. She always had ambitions to pursue an acting career, claiming she was inspired by the TV show Fame when she was just three years old! She starred in 35 episodes of CBBC’S school drama Grange Hill, playing pupil
Joanna Day from
1996 to 1998.
After this early success, she appeared in US
2 Fiona made her first appearance as Priya
Sharma in Emmerdale in 2011, taking over the role from Effie Woods, who had initially played the part in 2009 and 2010. Since returning to the village in 2011, Priya has had a fling with Cain, a relationship with David, married Rakesh, and had an affair with Pete – not to mention battling anorexia and prematurely giving birth to baby Amba! drama 24Seven, and the TV credits were soon piling up – including Doctors, Holby City, Wire In The Blood, Waterloo Road, Silent Witness, Casualty, and Law & Order: UK!
3 Fiona likes to keep her private life away from the eyes of the media, but she recently admitted that she’s been seeing a
new man. “I’m with someone right now,” she revealed back in March. “He’s an actor and writer based in London.
It’s fairly new – we’ve been together since last year, and he’s a very wonderful guy, but I’ve kept it quiet. I just wanted time to get to know him – he’s really special.”
4 Way back in the dim and distant past, talented Fiona was Juliet to James Mcavoy’s
Romeo! She and the future Hollywood actor appeared on stage together while the pair were performing in repertory theatre as teenagers in the 1990s. They also starred together in productions such as West Side Story, before they both achieved even greater successes.
5 Months before she made her way to the Dales, Fiona stopped
off at Corrie! She appeared as Sandeesh in June 2011 – a prospective client for Carla and Frank
Foster at Underworld. She tried to beat the pair down on price, but Carla told her to shove her order, and Sandeesh stormed out – never to be seen again! “They asked me to go back, but by that time I’d already got Emmerdale,” revealed Fiona.
6 While Fiona claims to be a terrible cook, she says that she’s lucky enough to be surrounded by
good ones! “My mother is amazing – she does lovely, freshly made pancakes!” shares the actress. “My family is like the United Colors Of Benetton when we all get together. My cousins are a mixture of Persian, Mauritian, Filipino and English – which means we have lots of yummy food from around the world!”
7
Last year, Fiona took part in ITV’S Dance Dance Dance series, partnered with
Ronnie Del Barrio. Fiona performed five dances – including a brave attempt at the iconic lift from Dirty
Dancing – but sadly she and Ronnie were the first contenders to exit the competition. Meanwhile, former Eastender Jonny Labey (aka Paul Coker) and his partner Chrissy Brooke went on to win!
8 Fiona follows the Bahá’í faith, a religion founded in 1863 which teaches the essential worth of all other
religions. Her father was also a follower of Bahá’í, although her mother is Catholic. Fiona says that she chose Bahá’í over Catholicism because “it believes in the oneness of humanity, and the togetherness of all the races, and the equality between men and women – for me, it just made sense”.
9 Fiona is patron of OPA, the national oesophageal/ gastric cancer
charity. She wanted to support the organisation in memory of her father, who sadly died very suddenly from the disease in 2006. Fiona has also designed special wristbands bearing the legend ‘Fiona Wade Appeal’, which can be bought for £2 each and have been modelled by many of Fiona’s friends and colleagues within the television industry.
10 Fiona once admitted on Stephen Mulhern’s Sunday Side Up chat show that her favourite sound is people
eating popcorn! “I don’t know why, but it’s nice,” she explained. Not when you’re trying to concentrate on a film in the cinema, it isn’t! Fiona also revealed that if she ever leaves the Dales and gives up acting altogether, she has another job or two in mind. “I would quite like to be a make-up artist,” she told show host Stephen. “Or maybe a criminologist…” That would be quite a career change – let’s hope she decides to carry on playing village favourite Priya for a long time yet!