Alicya Eyo.
Alicya Eyo (born 16 December 1975, Huyton, Liverpool) is a British theatre, film and television actress, best known for playing Ruby Haswell in the ITV soap opera, Emmerdale and, previously, for playing Denny Blood in the award-winning and critically acclaimed prison drama series Bad Girls.
Eyo was brought up in the Toxteth area of Liverpool. When she was fourteen, she moved to London.
Eyo’s love of drama started when she was nine. She attended classes every Saturday, with dancing. When she won competitions, she believed it went from there. She did her drama training in King's Cross, at the Courtyard Theatre School.
Eyo's first television appearance was in 1997, in Casualty, which was filmed earlier. She also made an appearance on Hetty Wainthropp Investigates and appeared in Gold the follow up drama series to Band Of Gold as a young prostitute involved with Yardie gangsters who come over to Bradfords red light district from Leeds to clear up the Lane. In 1999, Eyo appeared with Goldie in the David Bowie film Everybody Loves Sunshine known as B.U.S.T.E.D., internationally. She also starred in the movie G:MT - Greenwich Mean Time. However, Eyo's big break came in 1998 when she was offered the part of Denny Blood, in Bad Girls. The series was broadcast in June the following year when the UK viewing public first saw Eyo as Denny Blood in a pink PVC suit dancing to the N-Trance remix of Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees. Her agent told her that the production company, Shed, were looking for a 'shit, young, black, skinhead, tattoos with piercing'.
Since October 2011, Eyo appears in Emmerdale as Ruby Haswell, the lesbian partner of Ali Spencer (Kelli Hollis). Alicya Left the Role as Ruby Haswell on the 5th of August 2015
Eyo is a vegetarian.
Eyo has described her mother, Sue, as "amazing" and says that she is her idol. "My mum is a wicked singer, I’ve rapped and done some backing vocals for her. She’s a jazz singer and she’s top. If I’m in Liverpool, I sometimes gig with her". Karen, Eyo's aunt and Sue's sister and have appeared as Eyo's mother and aunt in an episode she starred in on Moving On.
Eyo is a strong supporter and patron of a north-west LGBT charity that provides services and support for young people, and in October 2012, she came out as a lesbian herself.