Lee Stanley - Louise Taylor

Louise Taylor is a fictional character from the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, a long-running serial drama about life in a fictional suburb of Chester. She was played by Brett O’Brien between 1995 and 1996 and appeared in the very first episode on 23 October 1995. She was one of seven original teen characters created for the show by Phil Redmond.

She if first introduced as the best friend of Maddie Parker, Natasha Andersen and Dawn Cunningham. Louise had trouble with her boyfriend Joe who was rough with her and at her party she caught him with another woman and used a Ouiji board to get over Joe and she grows close to Kurt Benson whom she later starts a relationship with. Their relationship becomes troubled and they later split up after she doesn't want to have sex with him. She sets up the official Riverbank end of term revue and devises the routines with Dermot. She and Dermot begin a feud and he sets up his own Revue, to rival hers, taking some of her cast with him. After Dermot asks Natasha out on a date she tries to stop her going on the date with him. At Lucy Benson's eighteenth birthday party Natasha dies after having her drink spiked by Dermot and Rob Hawthorne. Louise finds it difficult to come to terms with Natasha’s death and begins a friendship with traveller, Tree who she falls for before starting a relationship with him and deciding to leave Hollyoaks together for good. She has not been seen since she left in 1996.

Louise is described as a "hopeless romantic, causing her friends no end of trouble in her pursuit of the 'perfect' man. Louise was also obsessed with anything supernatural and lived her life according to what her horoscope dictated". The Liverpool Echo described Louise as "the most enigmatic of the debut seven. The character was a hopeless romantic in search of the perfect man who had a strong interest in the supernatural and lived her life by sticking to what the horoscopes said." They later described her as the "Gypsy-like earth mother Louise" and a "her own woman - a free spirit". She has also been described as "Responsible Lousie" who "was a bit of a stick in the mud". E4 as one of the "first generation of Hollyoaks starlets" adding that she is one of the "original Hollyoaks gang". They later described her time on the serial saying she "briefly dated Kurt Benson but ended their relationship when she didn’t want to sleep with him".

The Liverpool Echo described her as one of "the original magnificent seven". Lucy Ellman of The Independent described her storyline as "Natasha thought a friend who'd Given Herself to a two-timing louse (on the grounds that their star signs were compatible) was about to commit suicide. When she turned out to be alive, concern switched to the possibility that she might be pregnant". She responded negatively to the girls roles saying "The girls' role is highly suspect. They're given little to say, and spend their time worrying needlessly about each other". She added that "the girls entertain themselves with bodings of disaster" and that the "Women are there to perfume, tidy and present their cleavages". LastBroadcast described her exit saying "After Natasha's death, she left the village to run off with a new man". The Independent also labelled the original character's "mallrats" and added that Phil Redmond wrote the original cast as "glamorous young things who live in leafy suburbs rather than urban mean streets, and have only to worry about their spots and mobile phones".