Portrayed by Rochelle Gadd First appearance 22 December 2005 Occupation Student Introduced by David Hanson | Duration 2005–2006 Classification Former; regular Last appearance 8 September 2006 | |
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Similar Joe Spencer, Mark Jury, Ali Taylor, Theo Sankofa, Cameron Clark | ||
Olivia Johnson is a fictional character from the long-running Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Rochelle Gadd. She debuted on-screen during the episode airing on 22 December 2005. She was written out in 2006 after new executive producer Bryan Kirkwood took over and axed a number of characters.
Storylines
Olivia split up with her long-term boyfriend Julian before moving to Hollyoaks to study history. She found it hard to adjust to student life. She became close friends with Jessica Harris, but lived in her shadow as she was not as outgoing as Jessica or their new friend Steph Dean. Olivia's closest thing to a relationship was her bond with Rhys Ashworth, which he described as friends who sometimes have sex. She proved to be a good friend to Jessica in her relationship troubles with Mark Jury and Gilly Roach, and began learning to be more assertive as she was often walked all over by others. She and Jessica did a naked protest, as they were fired from Il Gnosh by Tony Hutchinson when Jessica became ill from meningitis. The local newspaper came to cover the story and Olivia "accidentally" told them about Jessica playing Gilly and Mark against each other.
However, Jessica decided to forgive Olivia and the two stayed friends until Kris (a new student) arrived and saw that Jessica was bossing Olivia around. Kris taught Olivia to stick up for herself and one night at The Dog in The Pond, she told Jessica that she wasn't going to be her slave anymore; this upset Jessica and unfortunately this was their last conversation. Sam Owen came into the pub and set fire to it; a beam fell down onto Olivia pinning her down. Joe Spencer came in to look for her and pulled her out, but the spirit bottles fell from the shelves and into the fire and exploded, which killed both Joe and Olivia.
Olivia continued to have a presence on the show after her death. Kris used some of her diary entries to hurt Jessica soon after Olivia was killed. Her face, along with the faces of Joe and the Burton twins, were put on a mural at the centre of town. When Jessica left the village in January 2008, she took one final look at the mural.