Welcome...

...to Rakie Ayola.com - your definitive source for up to date news and resources on actress Rakie Ayola - star of BBC1s Holby City, ITV's Solider Soldier and many more.

Latest news

January 10

Rakie's recent appearance on Ruth Jones' Christmas Cracker is now available online. Press play below to view.

December 09

Rakie has contributed to a new book in aid of the charity Elizabeth Finn Care. Called Tea & Teardrops: How We Survived The Bad Times, the Western Mail have an extract here, and the book is available to purchase from Amazon for £13.99.

Rakie is also set to appear on Ruth Jones' Christmas Cracker, to be broadcast on BBC One Wales (971 Sky Digital and 862 Virgin Media) on 22 December at 9pm, and 29 December at 22.50pm.

November 09

Rakie has given a couple of new interviews recently, one here with the South Wales Echo, and another here for BBC South East Wales. She also placed 17th in the Western Mail's list of the 50 sexiest women in Wales.

September 09

My Almost Famous Family

My Almost Famous Family is a brand new all-singing, all-dancing comedy series set to strike a chord on CBBC this September. Singing, dancing and doing the chores – it's all in a day's work for the Swann family, stars of the new 11-part high-energy, musical comedy series.

By day the Swanns perform as TV pop group We're In Perfect Harmony; by night they're a big, blended and sometimes harmonious step-family. When English musician Gary Swann (Andrew Clover) stepped on stage with African-American soul singer Shalondra (Rakie Ayola) in Las Vegas it was love at first verse.

Now their families have come together, moved back to the UK and landed the best gig in TV – house band on everyone's favourite tea-time chat-show, The Totally Annabelle Show, hosted by the nation's top teen presenter.

Catch Rakie as Shalondra Swann in My Almost Famous Family on Saturdays at 10am on BBC Two. The full press release on the new series is here, plus an interview with Rakie about the show here.

Site updates

In the clips section here, you can now listen to Rakie's performance as Naomi D'Oliveira in the radio play Dolly.

There are also several new images in the gallery, including a scan from OK! magazine of Rakie and the Holby City cast at co-star Nadine Lewington's wedding, plus a 2002 press kit photo from Being April.