Mandip Gill never intended to stay on ‘Hollyoaks’ for over three years but she had such a "good time" she stayed on.
The 30-year-old actress joined the Channel 4 soap in 2012 as Phoebe McQueen in what was her first major television role.
Mandip initially believed it would be a short-term project but she stayed because she made such "amazing friends" and had such fun on set every day but she is sure she left at the right time.
Speaking on The Two Shot Podcast, she said: "I was in ‘Hollyoaks’ for three-and-a-half years playing the same part, I made this business move, I was like, ‘You know what, I could stay in ‘Hollyoaks’ for years, I can see why people do it.’ I made amazing friends, I lived in Liverpool in my own flat, it was a really good job because it was like being at university but we were getting paid for it, just having a really good time and they offered me a new contract and I was like, ‘I have to be brave now.’ I never wanted to stay there for three-and-a-half years anyway but I just got carried away."
Mandip lived with her co-star Steven Roberts, who played George Smith, when she was on ‘Hollyoaks’ and she can’t thank him enough for the advice and help he gave her at the start of her television career.
She shared: "You’re working five or six days a week, an absolute machine, you go in there for 10 or 11 hours and it’s just constant, even if it’s not your storyline you’re supporting someone else’s storyline and I was fortunate to be in it all the time … I lived with Steven Roberts and he was already on ‘Hollyoaks’ before I got there and he was so organised and he was an amazing actor and he was like, ‘I use these stickers and it tells me what scene I’m on and what date.’ I got into this beautiful habit where on the side of my file it would tell me everything I was doing Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I was on top of every scene and I knew where I’d been and where I was heading and the big things that had happened that I needed to remember, so it weren’t that difficult. To me that was just a given because it was first job and I thought they were all like that."
Mandip is currently wowing audiences as TARDIS traveller Yasmin Khan in the current series of ‘Doctor Who’ opposite Jodie Whittaker, but she will always be grateful to her start on ‘Hollyoaks’ because it taught her so much about how to act in a major TV series.
She said: "A lot of people turn their nose up at soaps and in particular ‘Hollyoaks’ but you learn so much, you learn how to hit your marks, how to get to work on time, how to work with so many people because the cast is like 60 or 70 people of all different ages, all different backgrounds, it’s really loud and you’re there all day and it’s really fast."
Mandip Gill grateful for Hollyoaks role
