Gillian Louise Kearney[1] (born 9 May 1972) is an English actress best known for her early role as Debbie McGrath in Channel 4's Liverpool-based soap opera Brookside and the spin-off mini-series Damon and Debbie, and for playing Jessica Harrison in the long-running BBC television medical drama series Casualty, as well as Emma Barton in the ITV Yorkshire-based soap opera Emmerdale.
After repeatedly being overlooked for the lead roles in school productions, she decided to join the Liverpool Playhouse Youth Theatre, where she featured in plays including All Flesh is Grass (as Ema),[3] Katie Crackernuts and Yer Dancin'?
It was there, in 1986, that she was spotted by members of the Mersey Television production team; this resulted in her being asked to audition for a role in Channel 4's soap opera Brookside.
She also had the lead female part as Ellie Brookes in Sex, Chips & Rock n' Roll, a six-part television mini-series written and created by Debbie Horsfield and directed by John Woods.
Kearney was cast as Dr Deborah "Deb" Sweet, and starred alongside Jason Merrells, who played her husband, and Patricia Hodge as her formidable mother-in-law.
The show was intended to take up the mantle of the popular rural drama Peak Practice, which had recently ended, but low viewing figures saw Sweet Medicine axed after just one series.
[9] Early in 2010, Kearney announced her engagement to Eddie Foo and their intention to marry later that year in Ireland,[11] but the plans were soon put on hold when she discovered that she was expecting their first child.