Hollyoaks and Doctor Who star Mandip Gill has opened up about the struggle she faced in the acting industry before securing her role in the Channel 4 soap.
Mandip played Phoebe McQueen from 2012-2015. The character was the adoptive daughter of Rhys Ashworth and Jacqui McQueen, and died when The Gloved Hand Killer injected her with potassium chloride.
In 2018, Mandip joined the cast of Doctor Who as Yasmin Khan, one of the Doctor’s sidekicks. She travelled in the TARDIS until 2022, with her final scene happening moments before Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor regenerated into David Tennant’s once more.
Life in the TV and showbiz world is never smooth sailing. For Mandip, prior to her role in Hollyoaks, she would audition for countless shows, but never got offered a role.
Speaking in the next instalment of Lacey Turner’s podcast We Started Here, she said:
‘I’d audition for everything. Like, Emmerdale, Shameless, you name it! I always got to the last two, got pencilled in, never got it, it was just the “she doesn’t have experience”. That was such a big thing back in the day. But no one was giving me any!’.
‘I did loads of theatre, and then two years later, I said to my agent at the time, “I think I might need to stop”. She said I should take a holiday.’
The star continued: ‘I went on holiday and when I came back, the auditions for Hollyoaks started and obviously, I don’t think she would’ve let me quit at that point anyway.
‘But, for me, when I look back, I think, two, like, after two years you already have been so like, giving everyone all these talks and that and wanting to do it for so long… it can take its toll on you constantly.’
‘So you were ready to quit!’, Lacey pointed out.
So far in the podcast, Lacey has spoken to multiple stars from the soap world about their careers, including Jessie Wallace, Rakhee Thakrar, Davood Ghadami, and writer Sarah Phelps.
We Started Here is available on all podcast platforms.
