GEMMA Bissix makes an epic return to Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks – but not as an actress.
The actress, 39, starred in EastEnders at just 15 years old before joining Hollyoaks as cruel Clare Devine, winning awards for her work.
Gemma is taking a break from acting in soapland
Gemma played gangster’s daughter Clare Devine in Hollyoaks
She opened up about being sexually assaulted at age 15
Gemma is now planning a return to the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks as a shadow director.
She is working at Clacton’s Princes Theatre with Britain’s Got Talent and Emmerdale star George Sampson and Cleopatra Higgins from girl group Cleopatra.
She said: “I absolutely love directing. It’s incredible to have a vision and see it all come together.
“This is the second panto I have directed but last year I performed too. It’s great to be able to sit back and not have the pressure of going on stage.
“It has turned into a real passion. But I don’t think I’ll ever give up acting though… I’m too much of a show off!”
This comes after Gemma bravely retold when she was sexually assaulted.
She said she was in the toilets at an awards ceremony, where she was named Best Young Actor, by the man employed by party organisers to take charge of her care that evening.
She was then inappropriately propositioned again when she appeared in pantomime after leaving EastEnders at 15.
Gemma said: “Looking back now I should have reported them but I only know that now as a grown woman.
“At the time I was a child, I was under the age of 16.
“I wasn’t sexually active, I didn’t know what was going on, what they were trying to achieve. I just knew they were scary experiences.
“It makes me frustrated that they ever happened. Back then you were grateful to be famous so you kept your mouth shut and got on with it. It shouldn’t be like that.”
Gemma is now directing a Christmas pantomime, Cinderella, in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, and is doing everything she can to keep the young stars in her show safe.
She said: “I don’t want it to happen to any other young actress or actor on TV or stage.
“But if it did I would want them to be able to speak out in a way I couldn’t, but it was so different back then.”
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