Zak Ramsey (also Barnes) is a fictional character from the British soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Kent Riley.

Zak was introduced into the series as one of three new student characters, who arrive to study at the Hollyoaks Community College.

Zak is portrayed as a Scouser / Liverpudlian character, with a "fun-loving" persona and enjoys partying rather than concentrating on his studies.

Paired with Michaela McQueen (Hollie-Jay Bowes), Riley believed that the two characters were embarrassed about their unlikely relationship but later fell in love.

Producers also introduced Zak's sister, Hayley Ramsey (Kelly-Marie Stewart), a disabled character who has the illness, Guillain–Barré syndrome.

Riley explained that Zak and Hayley shared a close relationship until she became reliant on her wheelchair because of her disability.

Other notable stories include the exploration of national discrimination when Archie Carpenter (Stephen Beard) accuses Zak of theft because of his Scouser heritage.

These consisted of Zak, Stuart Harding (Dan Cryer) and Bella Manning (Kim Bourelle) and are new students who move in to the halls of residence at the Hollyoaks Community College.

[citation needed] An excerpt from the official Hollyoaks website detailed how Zak was not interested in studying during his first year at college.

The writer added "Zak's determined to spend as much time polishing his student credentials and as little honing his academic skills as he can.

[4][1] When Zak was reintroduced, writers featured him in the student group consisting of Jessica Harris (Jennifer Biddall), Will Hackett (Oliver Farnworth), Zoë Carpenter (Zoe Lister) and Kris Fisher (Gerard McCarthy).

Stewart told Tina Miles from Liverpool Echo that "before Hayley's illness, she had a great relationship with her brother Zak, but now he finds it difficult to relate to her and cannot see past her disability.

[9] The story begins when Zak and his friends Kris, Elliot Bevan (Garnon Davies) and Archie Carpenter (Stephen Beard) find £100,000 in cash and decide to keep it for themselves.

[10] In January 2010, Lucy Allan left the position of executive producer, with Paul Marquess taking over the role.

[12][13] By the following month, Marquess had decided to remove a further eleven characters from the series, including Zak who would leave at the end of Riley's contract.

[14] Marquess told Liverpool Echo's Miles that his decision to write the characters out was because they had run out of stories for them.

[16] Despite this, Marquess chose an insignificant exit as it was stated that the character would simply move on to pastures new at the end of his storyline-arc.

He explained that "in terms of the character, it's sad because he's much-loved but personally, it's a good time for me to move on to... different things...

[21] Cooper told an Inside Soap that Zak and Michaela obtain a video detailing all of Des' crimes.

Zak reveals details of Des' plan to target Jacqui's sister Carmel McQueen (Gemma Merna) for marrying Calvin Valentine (Ricky Whittle), who is black.

[21] Zak first shares a student flat with Zara Morgan (Kelly Greenwood), Lisa Hunter (Gemma Atkinson), Steph Dean (Carley Stenson), Cameron Clark (Ben Gerrard) and Bella.

Zak moves back into the student halls with Jessica, Kris, Zoë, Will, Joe Spencer (Matt Milburn) and Olivia Johnson (Rochelle Gadd).

When Zoë returns, Zak continues to pine for her, but soon realises she is falling for Darren Osborne (Ashley Taylor Dawson).

Katy admits she was just upset and jealous that Justin was giving all his attention to his son Charlie Dean (Joshua McConville).

Calvin then arrests Zak and Ash Roy (Junade Khan), for assaulting Gaz Bennett (Joel Goonan), despite them not being responsible.

Zak's sister Hayley Ramsey (Kelly-Marie Stewart), who uses a wheelchair due to Guillain–Barré syndrome, arrives to stay in Hollyoaks.

Zak realizes that Des is a racist and tries to stop him from planning to attack Ravi Roy (Stephen Uppal).

He makes an anonymous phone call to the police to inform them that Ravi's sister Anita Roy (Saira Choudhry) when he realizes that Des is planning to attack her, Des enlists Gaz to carry out the attack, which results in Gaz's arrest.

They quipped he "is not the sharpest knife in the kitchen drawer, so it was only a matter of time before he did something stupid to jeopardise his relationship with Michaela.