Former Emmerdale star Kelli Hollis has embarked on a completely new career since turning her back on acting.
The actress, 47, played Ali Spencer in the ITV soap between 2011 and 2015, with the character eventually being killed off away from screens in 2018.
But eight years after last appearing on Emmerdale, Kelli is now happily living in Thailand, where she runs a self-styled ‘weed bar’ with her partner Martin Dawson.
The TV personality has been in Thailand for a year and often showcases her new life on TikTok, where she’s amassed over 100,000 followers.
The bar sells cannabis and other marijuana products, with pictures of the bar on TikTok showing items such as ‘hash’, ‘joints’ and ‘brownies’ for sale.
Thailand is one of the few countries in Asia to have legalised cannabis for personal use, with ‘weed bars’ now reportedly popular in the country.
Kelli took to TikTok earlier this year with a celebratory post marking her first year in in the Southeast Asian country, with the thespian having initially planning to stay in the country for only for months.
She penned: ‘Came for 4 months, now run a weed bar’ alongside a video of herself and her partner enjoying the sights, as well as glimpses of her new business venture.
And Kelli certainly appears to be living her best life at her bar, which is located Bang Lamung within the coastal district of Chon Buri, and regularly posts updates of their daily goings on.
Speaking to LeedsLive last year, Kelli opened up about her business, remarking: ‘We’d been to Pattaya a few times on a holiday, we did a bit of island hopping and in June they legalised marijuana and 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.’
She went on to say of her shop, called La Choza Pratumnak: ‘I’ll be honest I’ve smoked weed since I was about fifteen but I’m not a hard-core weed smoker, I can’t do full joints and edibles and all that so it probably bodes well or I’d probably smoke all the profits!
‘It’s definitely not something I envisaged but we’ve definitely made the right choice.’
Leeds-born Kelli has had a varied career before embarking on her new role as the weed shop owner.
