Sally St. Claire
| Sally St. Claire | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||
| Hollyoaks character | |||||
| Portrayed by | Annie Wallace | ||||
| Duration | 2015– | ||||
| First appearance | 29 October 2015 | ||||
| Introduced by | Bryan Kirkwood | ||||
| Classification | Present; regular | ||||
| Profile | |||||
| Other names | Iain Naismith | ||||
| Occupation | Headteacher | ||||
|
|||||
| Sons | John Paul McQueen |
|---|---|
| Grandsons | Matthew McQueen |
Sally St. Claire (born Ian Naismith) is a fictional character from the Channel 4 soap opera, Hollyoaks, played by Annie Wallace. The character made her first on-screen appearance on 29 October 2015. She is the first transgender person to play a regular transgender character in British soap opera. She was cast after the show held casting workshops to discover acting talent in the transgender community. Sally is characterised as a strict, "no-nonsense" headteacher who moves to Hollyoaks village to work at the local school. Hollyoaks' writers explored the character's transgender status and worked alongside equal rights group All About Trans, who consulted and advised to make the story realistic. In one surprise storyline, Sally is revealed to be the biological parent of John Paul McQueen (James Sutton).
Hollyoaks featured a transgender character named Blessing Chambers played by non-transgender actress Modupe Adeyeye. The trans community were not impressed with the show for not hiring a transgender actress for the role.Hollyoaks casting department were not familiar with any out transgender actors. They decided to create a casting workshop alongside equal rights group All About Trans. 30 transgender people were in attendance during the workshop. Wallace was selected from the group and invited to play the role of Sally.
Wallace's casting was first acknowledged publicly via an article in The Guardian, written by transgender rights activist Paris Lees. She is the first transgender actress to play a regular transgender character in the British soap opera genre. The casting announcement came at a time rival soap opera EastEnders announced that they had developed similar plans casting transgender actor Riley Carter Millington as Kyle Slater.
Hollyoaks were not originally going to announce Wallace's casting until the following week. They also planned not to announce the fact that Wallace is transgender. But with Millington's casting public knowledge, the show released a press release. Wallace believed that transgender actors were being hired more in 2015 because of the new found willingness of casting directors and dramas themselves to represent the community.
...
Wikipedia