Emma Rigby

Emma Rigby is one of the main actors of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, portraying the role of the Red Queen.

Life and Career
Rigby was born in St. Helens, Merseyside and has one older sister, Charlotte. She attended De La Salle high school in St. Helens but left in 2006 to focus on her role as Hannah Ashworth in Hollyoaks. Despite her busy filming schedule in Hollyoaks, Rigby received nine A*s in her GCSE exam results.

The first professional acting role that Rigby receives was as Lisa Gunstone in Born and Bred. She had a few minor roles (such as that of Elena Jones in 3 episodes of Brookside) and appeared in popular soap, Brookside, as Elena Jones, before her most notable role as Hannah Ashworth on Channel 4's long-running soap opera, Hollyoaks (and by extension 5 episodes of Hollyoaks Later in 2009 under the same role). This was in 2005 when Rigby was 15 and she was given excessive praise and recognition for her anorexia storyline, in which she was nominated for various awards (Nominated for Most Popular Actress at the National Television Awards 2007; Winner for Best Actress at the British Soap Awards 2008; Nominated for Best Dramatic Performance at the British Soap Awards 2008; Nominated for Best Storyline for Hannah's Anorexia at the British Soap Awards 2008; Nominated for Sexiest Female at the British Soap Awards 2009). Rigby has also done some light modelling work on the side of acting. In 2009, Rigby appeared as Alicia Waterstone in the short film of Kingdom Without a King before appearing in another short film as Eloise in 2010, Talk.

In November 2008, Rigby announced she was leaving Hollyoaks' to pursue other projects, and would remain on-screen until June 2009. However, after meetings with soap bosses, it was later confirmed that Rigby had extended her contract for an additional six months and would remain on-screen until February 2010, and her final episode aired on 11 February 2010. In July 2010, Rigby made her debut in the west end psycho-sexual thriller musical Wolfboy, in which she had a non-singing part, playing the role of nurse Cherry, and she received positive feedback from critics. Rigby starred as Brandy Mulligan in online series Becoming Human (a tangent show from BBC Three's hit supernatural-drama, Being Human) in 2011 and also had a main role in British horror film Demons Never Die as Samantha Rearden and the lesser role of Maggie in another film later that same year Analogue Love. Later in 2011, she had a minor role in the first episode of Channel 4 comedy, Fresh Meat, as Rachel.

In December 2011 it was announced that Rigby would be starring in brand new six-part drama series, ''Prisoners' Wives, along with Jonas Armstrong. The show's first episode aired on 31 January 2012 with Rigby portraying the role of Gemma Roscoe, a young pregnant girl whose life falls apart when her husband is arrested for murder. The sixth and final episode of the series aired on 6 March 2012. Also in 2012, Rigby had a one-episode guest role in the BBC Three comedy, Pramface as Mike Fenton's (portrayed by Dylan Edwards) sexually adventurous blind date, Carrie-Ann.

In 2013, she appeared in an episode Ripper Street and The Job Lot, as well as two films, The Physician and Plastic, before later being cast in the starring role of the Red Queen in ABC's upcoming Once Upon a Time spin-off, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.

Personal Life
Her former boyfriend is footballer and current Bolton Wanderers defender, Matt Mills.