Vanessa Emme

Vanessa Emme is an Irish stage and television actress. Her television roles include Layla Walsh in British police drama The Chelsea Detective (2023-present).

Vanessa Emme
Education	The Lir Academy
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2010–present
Television	The Chelsea Detective

Early and personal life

Emme is of Filipino descent through her mother, who graduated from university in the Philippines before moving abroad to teach. Emme told The Irish Examiner in 2018 that she is distantly related to Filipina freedom fighter Marcela Marcelo who led a group of revolutionaries against the Spanish.^[1]

Emme graduated from The Lir Academy in 2014 with a Bachelor in Acting.^[2] She moved from Ireland to be based in London in the late 2010s.^[1]

Career

Stage

In 2015, she appeared on stage in an adaptation of Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin.^[3][4]

In 2017, she appeared in Mosquitoes at the National Theatre in London alongside Olivia Colman and Olivia Williams.^[5]

In 2018, she appeared in an adaptation of John Osbourne's Look Back in Anger at the Gate Theatre in Dublin.^[6][7]

Film & television

She appeared in Dublin Murders^[8] and Bloodlands.^[9] She also appeared in A Discovery of Witches in 2022, as well as a role in long-running British procedural crime series Midsomer Murders.^[10]

She has a voice role in the animated film A Greyhound of a Girl adapted from the book by Irish author Roddy Doyle.^[11]

She has a lead role alongside Adrian Scarborough in series two of The Chelsea Detective as no-nonsense police detective Layla Walsh from 2023, broadcast on Acorn TV.^[12][13] In March 2025, it was confirmed that her character would be returning for the third season of the show with filming completed ahead of an April 2025 broadcast.^[14]

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes	Ref.
2014	The Shadows	Female Shadow		[15]
2017	The Observer Effect	Maeve	Short film	[16]
2023	A Greyhound of a Girl	Dr. Heaney	Voice role	[11]

Television

Year	Film	Role	Notes	Ref.
2016	The Fall	Dr. Doyle	Episode: "Silence and Suffering"	[17]
2017	Little Boy Blue	Police Liaison Officer	Miniseries; 2 episodes	[18]
2018	Holby City	Rochelle Plympton	Episode: "All Lies Lead to the Truth"	[19]
2019	Manhunt	Vanessa	Episode: "The First Day"	[20]
	Dublin Murders	Abby Stone	Miniseries; 4 episodes	[21]
2020	Doctors	Ruth Garrod	Episode: "New Follower"	[22]
2021	Three Families	Rachel Donleavy	Miniseries; 2 episodes	[23]
	Midsomer Murders	Danni Karras	Episode: "Happy Families"	[24]
2022	A Discovery of Witches	Joy Connelly	Episode: "Series 3, Episode 2"	[25]
	Bloodlands	Leah Hardy	Recurring role; 3 episodes	[26]
2023-	The Chelsea Detective	DS Layla Walsh	Series regular; 4 episodes	[27]