Eva O'Hara

Eva O'Hara is a British actress. O'Hara studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where she performed in various productions at the Bristol Old Vic. She also appeared in other stage productions and short films, and made her film debut as Rosalind in Stark Shakespeare in 2018. After graduating from the school in 2019, O'Hara was cast as Verity Hutchinson in the British soap opera Hollyoaks, with the character first appearing in January 2020. O'Hara later chose to leave the role and the character was killed off in December 2022. In 2024, O'Hara returned to stage and performed in Windsor Theatre Royal's adaptation of The Great Gatsby.

Career

O'Hara studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where she graduated with a BA in Acting in 2019. Whilst studying there, she performed in several plays at the Bristol Old Vic, including their adaptations of A View from the Bridge (2018), How My Light Is Spent (2019), Lungs (2017) and The Comedy of Errors (2018), the latter of which was performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. That June, O'Hara appeared as Kate Nickleby in the Bristol Old Vic's adaptation of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. O'Hara has won the Andy Frazer Stage Combat award, in addition to being a finalist of the Alan Bates and BBC Radio Carlton Hobbs awards. The character had previously been announced that September prior to the news of O'Hara's casting. Verity was introduced as the daughter of Edward Hutchinson (Joe McGann) and the half-sister of Hollyoaks''' longest-running character, Tony Hutchinson (Nick Pickard). Verity was described as "ruthless and cunning" and a character who can "hold her own in any situation and really doesn't take no for an answer", with O'Hara revealing that she sometimes is jealous of the character's "fearlessness".

Verity's storylines on the soap have included setting up her own law firm in the village, lying about being pregnant, a romance with Shaq Qureshi (Omar Malik) and finding out about her brother Eric Foster's (Angus Castle-Doughty) radical misogyny. In March 2022, O'Hara played a pivotal role in a special Hollyoaks International Women's Day episode, portraying both Verity and a woman from the 1950s in a flashback, with the actress feeling "immensely proud" of the episode and hoping that it would help spark conversation among viewers and highlight the "everyday prejudices" that women face.

In 2022, O'Hara chose to leave the soap and she made her last appearance as Verity in December 2022, when the character was killed off. The departure had not been announced prior to the broadcast of Verity's death, which saw her be murdered by an unknown assailant, who was later revealed to be Bobby Costello (Jayden Fox). O'Hara explained that she had had a meeting with executive producer Lucy Allan, where there was initially an idea that the character would have a happy ending, but O'Hara revealed that she pushed for "something more meaty". That same year, she appeared in the short film White Knight and in 2025, voiced the role of Mrs Schumacher in the audiobook The Rat Catcher. In 2022, she took part in a LGBTQ+ Hollyoaks photoshoot for LGBTQ+ History Month, where she said that "the attention and the conversation needs to be had with the queer community" until the "history of inequality" could be rectified in the industry. She also gained a Level 3 certificate in Personal Training, and is an ambassador for Future Fit''. She enjoys climbing, singing and playing instruments.

Acting credits Filmography Year Title Role Notes 2017 Digging Ellie Short film 2018 Stark Shakespeare Film Rosalind 2019 Honesty Louise Short film 2019 Your Move Player Two Short film 2020 Hollyoaks Later Verity Hutchinson 1 episode 2020–22 Hollyoaks Verity Hutchinson Regular role 2024 White Knight Head Hostess Short film

Theatre Year Production Venue Role 2016 The Mysteries Playbox Theatre Mary Magdalene 2016 Shakespeare's Forests Shakespeare Young Company Rosalind 2017 Lungs Bristol Old Vic W 2018 The Comedy of Errors Bristol Old Vic and Edinburgh Fringe Festival Emilia 2018 A View from the Bridge Bristol Old Vic Catherine 2019 How My Light Is Spent Bristol Old Vic Kitty 2019 Where We Come From The Actors Centre Eva 2019 The Life and Adventuresof Nicholas Nickleby Bristol Old Vic Kate Nickleby 2019 Mr. Maglump Bristol Old Vic Mrs Robin 2024 The Great Gatsby Theatre Royal, Windsor Jordan Baker Sources: