Cheryl Brady

Cheryl Nicolette Brady is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Bronagh Waugh. The character first appeared on-screen on 25 November 2008, during the first series of the Hollyoaks spin-off, Hollyoaks Later, as the former love interest of Malachy Fisher. She made her first appearance in main Hollyoaks episodes in July 2009, introduced to the serial by series producer, Lucy Allan. In 2010 when Paul Marquess began producing the serial, he felt that Cheryl was being used in the wrong way, subsequently making her a central character to the show. It was announced on 1 February 2013 that Waugh quit her role. Cheryl departed Hollyoaks on 22 March 2013, after five and half years on the show.

Character creation

Background

The character of Cheryl was created to help correctly show a cross-section of young people in British society. Cheryl was given immediate links to Malachy Fisher (Glen Wallace), being his ex-girlfriend and Kris Fisher (Gerard McCarthy) who also knew her from his time living in Belfast. When Cheryl was introduced to the main cast she had already established links with character Zak Ramsey (Kent Riley), who she had previously shared a fling with. Series producer Lucy Allan also stated she had big plans for the character. Bronagh Waugh and Ricky Whittle (Calvin Valentine) discussed why they believed the character was introduced into the main series stating: "I think they brought me in to lighten it [Hollyoaks] up." and "They have brought Cheryl in to introduce a bit of comedy, a bit more fun."