Sian Reese-Williams


Sian Reese-Williams is a Welsh theatre and television actress and singer, best known for playing Genesis Walker in Emmerdale.
She received the BBC London Theatre Award for outstanding performance in a musical in 2001 for her role in the National Youth Music Theatre's production of The Dreaming.
She graduated in Drama from the University of Hull and trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.

Television

In 2008, Reese-Williams was cast to play the role of Gennie Walker in Emmerdale. The character was created by series producer Kathleen Beedles, although by the time Reese-Williams's first episode aired on 1 April 2008, Anita Turner had taken over from Beedles. She was cast in the role and started filming in the week beginning 3 March 2008. It was announced that Reese-Williams was to leave the soap in 2013. Her character was killed off on 25 July 2013.
In 2016, she featured in series 3 of critically acclaimed Welsh crime drama Hinterland / Y Gwyll, playing DI Tom Matthias's love interest, Manon.
In 2017, she starred in series 3 of the BAFTA award-winning 35 Diwrnod for S4C.
She played the role of Trudy in the BBC One/Netflix drama Requiem, which aired in early 2018, followed by the lead role of Detective Inspector Cadi John, in a bilingual crime drama that was shown on S4C in January 2018 as Craith, with English dialogue dubbed into Welsh, before being broadcast with bilingual dialogue on BBC Wales and BBC Four as Hidden in June 2018. A second series aired in 2019.
In January 2020, she appeared in Silent Witness as Tina Harcourt, a long time beaten wife who took revenge on the husbands & partners of other beaten women by killing some & framing others for those murders.

Theatre

Following her stint in Emmerdale, Reese-Williams returned to theatre and in November 2013 played "Marta" in Children of Fate at the Bussey Building in Peckham.
In May/June 2014, she played 'Linda' in Alan Bennett's Enjoy at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.
She has worked extensively with new-writing theatre Paines Plough on their Roundabout Theatre season. She starred to wide critical acclaim as W in Duncan Macmillan's Lungs, which was awarded the 2016 Manchester Theatre Award for Best Studio Production.
In 2012, she voiced the playable character of Boudica, the Welsh-speaking leader of the Celts, in , an expansion pack of the video game Sid Meier's Civilization V.

Personal life

Reese-Williams was born in Glanamman, South Wales. She lived in Swansea until the age of 4, when her family moved to Brecon, Mid Wales. Reese-Williams is a native speaker of Welsh.
She now lives in South London.

Filmography