Former Emmerdale actress Kelli Hollis has joined the cast of Coronation Street as a mysterious character
Former Emmerdale actress Kelli Hollis has joined the cast of Coronation Street as a mysterious character
Sara Baalla Screen Time TV Reporter
18:31, 04 Feb 2026Updated 18:38, 04 Feb 2026
Coronation Street fans believe they’ve exposed a huge Lauren Bolton twist after an Emmerdale star joined the cast.
Kelli Hollis took to her TikTok page on Tuesday (February 3) to reveal that she had secured a part on Corrie. The 49-year-old actress notably arrived in Emmerdale back in 2011, portraying Ali Spencer, mum to Sean (Luke Roskell) and Amelia (Daisy Campbell).
The character departed the Dales for a fresh start in Liverpool in 2015, though tragically in 2018, Ali met her end off-screen in a motor accident.
Revealing details about her switch to the rival soap, Kelli spoke to her TikTok followers about her first day on the Corrie set. “Oh my god! What a morning! So, I’m here at Corrie, I’m exhausted, and it’s not from working,” she started.
“I’ve done two scenes already this morning, I’ve got two more now this afternoon. But I’m exhausted from seeing everybody. The amount of crew that I’ve worked with before on other jobs that are here, phenomenal!” reports the Daily Star.
READ MORE: Where is Coronation Street Imran actor now including split from cobbles co-starREAD MORE: Coronation Street’s Tony Maudsley shares rare insight into private life after family snap
Kelli went on: “And then let’s talk about the cast. So, our beautiful Jane [Hazlegrove, who plays Bernie Winter], I worked with her on Clink, she heard I was here, and she came running up.
“And the most handsome man ever, apart from my Martin, the gorgeous Aaron McClusker [who plays Ben Driscoll]. He came bounding in, picked me up, spun me around. I’ve been made to feel so welcome. What a brilliant day so far.”
It remains unclear which character Kelli will portray on the soap, but numerous fans have voiced their theories that she might be Lauren’s (Cait Fitton) biological mother.
Coronation Street viewers will recall that Lauren was previously manipulated by her father, Reece (Scott Anson), into joining a far-right extremist organisation. A woman claiming to be Lauren’s mother, Kerry (Hannah Almond), was brought into the soap in 2024, during Roy Cropper’s (David Neilson) wrongful murder accusation involving the teenager.
“Kerry” visited the café and covertly filmed Roy’s living quarters, creating commentary that painted him as a murderer. However, the woman subsequently admitted that she wasn’t the real Kerry.
Expressing their theories that Kelli might be cast as Lauren’s actual mother, one person posted on TikTok: “You should be Lauren’s mum, you look so like her.”
Another commented: “She could definitely play Lauren’s mum, they are so alike,” whilst a third remarked: “Have we ever seen Lauren Bolton’s mum? If not, could definitely see you playing her and see a resemblance.”
A fourth fan shared the same view, writing: “Lauren’s real mum? Please say you are playing Lauren’s mum?” with another similarly posting: “Defo something to do with Lauren!”
Meanwhile, other spectators suspect that Kelli might be portraying Roy’s mysterious pen pal Alice, whom we’ve yet to encounter, or another of Shona Platt’s (Julia Goulding) siblings. Might they be right?
Emmerdale airs weekday nights at 8pm on ITV1 and STV, and Coronation Street airs weekday nights at 8.30pm on ITV1 and STV as part of ITV’s new soap power hour scheduling pattern for Coronation Street and Emmerdale
For the latest showbiz, TV, movie and streaming news, go to the new Everything Gossip website
