Who are One Day stars Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall? Comedian, 28, born to Indian immigrant parents and descendant of American socialite Maxine Elliott are star-crossed lovers in 20-year story

Breaking hearts with their portrayal of a star-crossed, 20-year love story in the Netflix adaptation of One Day, Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall are both rising stars in the British acting scene.

Hertfordshire-born Ambika, 28, impressed as a junior doctor in This Is Going to Hurt in 2022, while Leo, 27, appeared as Tom Hollander‘s ‘nephew’ Jack in the latest series of HBO‘s The White Lotus.

But most recently, the actors brought Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew to life in the Netflix limited series One Day, based on David Nicholls’ novel of the same name.

It aired on Thursday and audiences claimed they ‘loved every minute’ of the emotional, tumultuous story, with many saying they’ve ‘never cried so much at a show’. 

Emma and Dexter meet on the 15th July 1988, the night of their Edinburgh University graduation. The next morning, they go their separate ways but the novel and TV series catches up with them on the same day every year. 

Each episode finds Dex and Emma, one year older, on this one particular date, as they grow and change, move together and apart, experience joy and heartbreak. 

But who are Ambika and Leo – the actors who brought this love story to life?

One Day may be Ambika’s first leading on-screen role, but the actor was lauded for her emotional performance in the BBC miniseries This Is Going To Hurt.

Here, she portrays Shruti Acharya – an overworked junior doctor who tragically ends her life after suffering a mental health crisis due to mounting pressure in the NHS. 

But it wasn’t in acting that Ambika first made waves in the industry.

She made her start in live comedy, performing for years at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival – first with university sketch troupe the Durham Revue and later as a due with Andrew Shires.

Ambika, who was born to Indian immigrant parents in Hatfield, made ends meet as a personal assistant for Conde Nast by day, while working on live comedy at night.

Speaking to the Guardian, Ambika described how after graduating from Durham University, she and her comedy partner Andrew (who form comedy act Megan from HR) took their shows to the Edinburgh fringe, including sketches about an unsuccessful Simon and Garfunkel cover band.

But the endeavour ‘felt like a massive fail’ because progress was so slow – before 2019, when they began to garner attention.

Three years later, Ambika landed This Is Going to Hurt.

‘I massively felt like I didn’t belong there,’ she told the outlet. ‘I didn’t know what acting was or how to act, or what I should be doing. But my philosophy was just do everything and you’ll figure out what works for you.’ 

She also revealed that while she’s grateful for her opportunities, there were ‘ceilings’ in place for her as a young, brown woman.

Ambika added: ‘Often wonder what kind of parts would have come to me if I had that same sort of breakout role and if I’d been white, and there were just more opportunities out there for me.’

The star is the daughter of an accountant and vet, and admits that she grew up quite ‘shy and introverted’ but enjoyed watching Bollywood movies.

While doing her degree in English Studies at Durham, she was in the university’s comedy group Durham Revue.

After graduating, she moved to London.

She fell in love with comedy, but soon began considering acting roles and appeared in the likes of The Mash Report, I Hate Suzie and Pet Name before landing This Is Going to Hurt in 2021.

She told CNN that, after this, she felt lost as to what her next step should be.

‘I didn’t really feel like a lot of the roles and auditions that were coming to me were that right next step up,’ she said. ‘It kind of just felt like I was being put in my lane a bit as a brown woman. It was a lot of South Asian women in professional jobs, very much assisting the plot in a procedural way.’

Ambika even turned down an audition for One Day initially, thinking it would be ‘a waste of everyone’s time for me to even consider it’.

‘First of all, she’s written as a white woman. Second of all, I would just never have seen myself ever playing romantic leads. I got the message very early on from Western television that that just wasn’t the vibe.’

But after a month-long process of auditions and screen tests, Ambika was offered the role – and she thankfully decided it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

She stars in One Day alongside Leo Woodall, an actor from Hammersmith, west London, who is a descendant of the 19th century American socialite Maxine Elliott.

Unlike Ambika, Leo comes from a family of actors – with his father, stepfather and grandmother all working in the industry – and his parents even met at drama school.

The 27-year-old had initially planned for a career in sports, but changed his mind at the age of 19 after watching the beloved BBC series Peaky Blinders. 

Leo then attended Arts Educational School (ArtsEd) in London, graduating with a BA in Acting in 2019.

With a degree behind him, roles came to Leo quickly.

His first was in an episode of hospital drama Holby City, and shortly afterwards he was cast in upcoming science fiction film Nomad, chosen from 28,000 submissions for the role.

Leo filmed in 20 countries over a three-year period for the film.

In the meantime, he made his film debut in Cherry, directed by the Russo brothers, and appeared in the Peacock series Vampire Academy. 

It was in 2022 that he had his first major breakthrough role as Jack in anthology series The White Lotus, the troubled ‘nephew’ of Tom Hollander’s character.

Discussing his introduction to the role, Leo told GQ: ‘Do you remember that episode of Friends when Joey’s written a script for Chandler and Ross to read, and he writes “a handsome man enters”. 

‘It was kind of like that, it was like “Handsome Jack walks up to the pool. Portia looks at handsome Jack”.

‘There was a tagline in the breakdown of the character that was like, “Guy from Essex, is a magnetic person who causes some trouble in the hotel”. I wish I could paraphrase it better than that.’

But his experience on the set of the White Lotus didn’t make One Day any less daunting for Leo, who said it felt like a ‘mountain to climb’.

He told The Hollywood Reporter: ‘I was struck by how much pressure I felt being a lead.

‘I didn’t know if I should behave like the captain of a sports team. And I struggled with not having any kind of moment to myself, like you can’t tie your own shoelace or spit your own gum out.

‘There was one day when I noticed I was being followed by a paparazzi photographer and I thought, “I don’t know how people deal with this on a daily basis.” 

‘I want to be as successful as I can be as an actor, but I don’t think it would be that fun to be categorically famous.’