Tahirah Sharif

Tahirah Sharif is a British actress, known for her roles as Ella Ashford in BBC medical drama, Casualty, Carrie Norton in BBC school drama Waterloo Road and Melissa in Netflix holiday film franchise A Christmas Prince.

One of Tahirah Sharif's first roles was in Film 4 short See Me as the lead, Alicia starring alongside Academy Award winner Olivia Colman

In 2012, Sharif appeared in each episode of the BBC drama, One Night as Madison as well as appearing in the second series of ITV dramaWhitechapel as Chantal Essian in February 2012. In the same year Sharif played Esther Adams in the stage production of Moon on a Rainbow Shawl at The National Theatre and as Dunyazade in the stage production of Arabian Nights at the Tricycle Theatre. Sharif then appeared in her first feature film, The Invisible Woman as Rosa, starring alongside Ralph Fiennes and Felicity Jones.

In 2013, Sharif was cast as the teenage daughter of Martin Ashford (Patrick Robinson), Ella in Casualty. Ella was billed as "mischievous, a true troublemaker and determined to cause trouble for Ash [father, Martin]". Sharif's first scenes aired on 4 May 2013 and over a year later, on 17 May 2014, Sharif's final scenes aired. This decision was made by producers after Ella's storyline came to a finish and it saw her arrested after her father decided to hand her into the police.

Once she finished on Casualty, Sharif reprised her role as Esther Adams in the stage production of Moon on a Rainbow Shawl for it’s UK national tour.Sharif starred in the final ten episodes of long-running school drama, Waterloo Road, as student Carrie Norton in 2015. Her storylines included the return of her brother, Guy Braxton (Regé-Jean Page) and her relationship with Lenny Brown (Joe Slater). Sharif went onto play Kile in sci fi short film Pulsar in 2015 alongside Jessie Buckley and David Gyasi. The same year, Sharif played Katie in Firebird at Hampstead Theatre. The play was so successful that it got transferred to west end theatre Trafalgar Studios in 2016.

In 2017 Sharif was cast as Melissa in A Christmas Prince, Netflix's hugely successful foray into holiday films. There were a further two films, as the first film proved incredibly popular. A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding and A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby came out on Netflix in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

Sharif will star as Miss Rebecca Jessel in upcoming horror television series The Haunting of Bly Manor due to air on Netflix in October 2020.

Sharif is also a qualified level 3 Personal Trainer.