Bafta-winning actor Sarah Lancashire has reportedly decided to pursue an all-new career path away from on-screen acting.
The 59-year-old, who just this week bagged another Bafta nod for her role in the BBC drama Happy Valley, has been a familiar presence on screens for over three decades.
Her breakout role came in the early nineties as Raquel Wolstenhulme in Coronation Street with the soap star making her final appearance in 2000.
Since then, several high-profile roles have followed, including stints in Doctor Who, Lark Rise to Candleford, MotherFatherson and Last Tango in Halifax.
But it's in the BBC crime drama Happy Valley where Lancashire has excelled in recent years, reprising the lead role of Catherine Cawood in its final series last year following a seven-year gap.
Her most recent role was as iconic chef Julia Child in the HBO biopic about the cook but it's now believed this could be the last fans see of Lancashire on-screen.
Sarah Lancashire recently starred in the final series of Happy Valley
BBC
"Sarah adores acting but the idea of producing had been niggling at her," a source has revealed, opening up on Lancashire's reported decision to focus her attention on her own production company instead of acting.
They added to the Mail: "She decided, once Happy Valley was over that it was a good time to get it under way. She is so excited.
"It has been so exciting for her that even when she won her outstanding achievement award at the National Television Awards last year, she had to dash home as she was up early the next day, telling everyone she is producing now.
"She may have found a new passion, Sarah has never loved the limelight anyway."
Lancashire launched Via Pictures after bowing out of Happy Valley in explosive scenes last year opposite sparring partner James Norton.
GB News has contacted Lancashire's representatives for comment on the reports.
The former soap star has spoken publicly about her passion for producing before but didn't mention that it would take precedence over acting.
She told fans at the Göteborg Film Festival earlier this year [via Deadline]: "It’s a small production company, and we’re very much about developing our own ideas and fresh takes on existing ideas.
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Sarah Lancashire has reportedly quit acting
GETTY/BBC
"We have a handful of passion projects," she told eventgoers before teasing she'd already laid hands on an unnamed novel she was keen to adapt for the screen.
"We weren’t looking to adapt any books. But we found a book. Or it found us, and it’s a remarkable piece of writing and fiercely difficult to adapt."
