Emmerdales Ali Spencer star now – café job, selling marijuana and show regret

Emmerdale star Kelli Hollis, known for her role as Ali Spencer, first appeared on the popular ITV soap in 2011 and was last seen on the show in 2015.

Her character was the sister of Rachel Breckle and the mother of Sean and Amelia Spencer.

After leaving the village in 2015, Ali and Rachel moved to Liverpool, however, in 2018, Ali was killed in a road accident when the show decided to kill off the character off-screen.

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Since then, Kelli has taken a step back from acting and has left the limelight behind and is now living a quiet life in Thailand with her partner Martin.

As Ali's daughter Amelia Spencer remains in the village, Daily Star takes a look at where the actress is now.

Weed business

Kelli has turned her back on showbiz to pursue a new career in Thailand selling marijuana.

The star previously opened up about her new quiet life in Pattaya, where she's living with her partner Martin after moving to Thailand permanently earlier this year.

Kelli, who has fallen in love with the Southeast Asian country, recently set up her own business selling medicinal marijuana, which was recently legalised in the country she now calls home.

She admitted that it was not something she ever envisaged, but that she's made the right choice.

In an interview with LeedsLive in 2022, the actress revealed: "We've been here since April and have no plans to return at the moment.

"We've applied for full-time visas, we've got work permits.

"We found this really cute little shop and got really good friends with the owner and decided to basically set up our own weed shop."

Kelli added that she loves being a little bit incognito in Thailand, especially after 20 years in showbiz.

She also joked that she can't sell full joints and edibles and it’s probably for the best, or she'd “smoke all the profits.”

Waitress job

Kelli recently revealed she's taken a complete U-turn from the soap and is working at a café.

The actress left Emmerdale eight years ago, and has since taken on shifts in between acting jobs.

Kelli took to Twitter to share a snap of herself in her work apron, taking a quick break from serving coffee.

One lucky fan who spotted her told The Sun Online, "I couldn't believe it when I saw her serving coffee – but she was really nice and took pics with whoever asked.”

Kelli's agent has said that she's "just helping out a friend in-between projects" and has "lots of wonderful acting gigs about to commence shortly."

While the news of Kelli's part-time job may come as a shock to some, the star has been open about her struggles with finding work since leaving Emmerdale.

Despite her character being killed off, Kelli had been hoping to return to the show, but bosses had other plans.

However, she's managed to stay busy with roles in Sky crime drama Wolfe, Doctors, and Ackley Bridge.

On-set conception

Kelli revealed back in 2021 that she conceived her child while filming on set.

The actress, hooked up with her partner in her Winnebago between scenes, and has spilled all the juicy details on the Soap From The Box podcast.

"I actually conceived my son while I was filming at Emmerdale,’ said Kelli.

“Not on set but in my Winnebago." But Kelli isn't too fazed by the news.

"I’m sure there are a lot of worse places to be conceived – and at least we got a bit of kudos."

Kelli revealed that the cast and crew were in on the joke, and even suggested some names for the baby.

"Everybody used to joke that if we had a girl we should call her Emma and if it was a boy we should call him Dale," she said.

Show regret

Kelli revealed late last year that she was left feeling emotional when her on-screen daughter gave birth recently.

Amelia Spencer, played by Daisy Campbell, gave birth to a baby girl with Allison as a middle name, a decision that made Kelli wish she could have been there.

"There was a little bit of me that was like oh I wish I could have been there for that," Kelli admitted in an interview with Leeds Live.

Despite her character being killed off in 2018, Kelli remains close friends with her former co-stars and was kept in the loop throughout the teenage pregnancy storyline.

"Foxy (Liam Fox) and Daisy keep me up in the loop, I speak to them all the time, we're really good friends," she said.

On the subject of her character's untimely demise, Kelli took it all in stride.

"I genuinely didn't mind, the time I had there was so amazing and with the soap world that's just the kind of thing that happens," she said.

But Kelli hasn't ruled out a possible return in ghostly form.

"If they wanted to bring Ali back in ghost form in the shower then you know, obviously, I'm there," she teased.

Police run-in

Kelli was slapped with a fine last year after police caught her car kerb crawling in Greater London.

The 48-year-old actress left her car behind in the UK after moving to Thailand in 2015.

But her vehicle has been caught up in a scandal, leaving Kelli furious.

In a video posted online, Kelli explained that she had lent her car to a friend who later purchased it from her.

"When I was in Thailand they transferred me the money and reassured me, as I had no access to the log book," she said.

However, Kelli's friend failed to apply for a log book as instructed, resulting in the actress receiving several tickets, with the latest being a warning from police about the car's kerb crawling activities.

"I explained what they had to do, take £25 off the car money and apply for a log book – easy peasy. But they didn't do that, and for the past couple of months I've been getting ticket after ticket, about five in all so far, but this is the icing on the cake," Kelli fumed.

"What the actual f***?" Kelli exclaimed in frustration.

"I let my friend use my car because they had no brakes or M.O.T, so it was pretty dangerous for them to drive their car," Kelli explained, adding that she was unaware of the car's whereabouts until the police letter arrived.

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