Career
She began her acting career as a teenager, playing Karen Young in the long-running CBBC drama series Grange Hill. She is also known for her lead role on the talent show drama Rock Rivals and a regular role as Cheryl Gray on Coronation Street between 2010 and 2011. Holly Quin-Ankrah is originally from Warrington, Cheshire.
She did not receive any formal acting training, having started filming as Karen Young on the CBBC drama Grange Hill as a teenager.
Whilst a cast member on Grange Hill she engaged in philanthropic ventures. In December 2004 she visited Saint Francis Xavier"s College, Woolton, Liverpool to promote MEND, a national mobile phone database for stolen or lost equipment.
In April 2006 she visited Alder Hey children"s hospital to donate Easter Eggs to sick children. Following Grange Hill, Quin-Ankrah played a lead role in the 2008 Independent Television talent show drama Rock Rivals as "contestant" Bethany Hopkins.
Unlike co-star Sol Heras, who had his character"s singing voice provided by a session singer, Quin-Ankrah both acted and sang during the series.
In 2009 she appeared in an episode of the sixth series of Shameless as Geena. In February 2010 it was reported that Quin-Ankrah had been cast in the soap-opera Coronation Street as Cheryl Gray, a love interest for established character Lloyd Mullaney (Craig Charles). Quin-Ankrah was 22 at the time of joining the soap but did not reveal her age at the casting as Cheryl was intended to be significantly older, with a ten-year-old son.
Of her audition, Quin Ankrah recalls: "My agent told me not to say how old I was.
She departed the serial in November 2011. Quin-Ankrah"s theatre credits include playing the role of Katie in a 2009 stage musical adaptation of the Willy Russell drama Our Day Out at the Royal Court, Liverpool.