Laila Abdesselam was born on 22 June 1971 to an Indian mother and a Moroccan father, she grew up with six siblings in Tower Hamlets in the East End of London.
She also played recurring roles in the British soaps Family Affairs and Hollyoaks,[6] as well as appearing in episodes of I Dream, Casualty and Meet the Magoons.
[10] Rouass then joined the cast of the BBC medical drama Holby City, appearing from February 2011 as registrar Sahira Shah.
[12] In July 2024, it was announced that Rouass would be joining the BBC soap opera EastEnders as Ayesha Siddhu, a woman from Suki Panesar's past.
[13] She participated in the seventh series of Strictly Come Dancing, a BBC One reality show, paired with professional dancer Anton Du Beke, and alongside Footballers' Wives co-star Zöe Lucker.
[15] Rouass' first film was City of Dreams produced by Feroze Nadiawala, in which she starred opposite Lisa Ray and Saeed Jaffrey.
[6][16] During the years that she was based in India, early in her career, she acted in some Indian films, Aditya Bhattacharya's Indo-Italian Senso unico (1999) and Dev Benegal's Split Wide Open (1999).
[20] Rouass also appeared in the independent British film Shoot on Sight (2007) opposite Brian Cox, Om Puri and Sadie Frost.