List of Emmerdale characters introduced in 2020


Emmerdale is a British soap opera first broadcast on 16 October 1972. The following is a list of characters that first appear during 2020, by order of first appearance. All characters are introduced by the soap's executive producer, Jane Hudson. The first character to be introduced was Harry Sugden, the son of Victoria Sugden and Lee Posner, followed by Cara Robinson. DI Mark Malone first appeared in March, and Paul Ashdale was introduced in April as the father of Vinny. [|Ben Tucker] was introduced in September as a love interest for Aaron Dingle, and Meena Jutla and Mackenzie Boyd made their debuts in September and October, respectively. In December, vicar [|Charles Anderson] was introduced. Additionally, multiple [|other characters] appeared in 2020.

Harry Sugden

Harry Sugden is the son of Victoria Sugden, who was conceived when she was raped by Lee Posner. He was born on New Year's Day 2020 and was originally played by Brody and Teddy Hall, before being taken over by Adam Pryor in 2022. Despite being conceived in horrific circumstances, Victoria decided to keep her baby, but feared that he would grow up to be like his father. However, when she held Harry after giving birth to him, she immediately fell in love with him.
After Harry's birth, his paternal grandmother Wendy Posner wanted to meet him, but Victoria was anxious because initially she refused to believe that Lee raped her and her insistence that she was lying. When Harry was a month old, Victoria grew close to his uncle, Luke Posner, who then began to babysit Harry, which Wendy was delighted with. Eventually, Victoria allowed Wendy to look after him and the four grew quite close. On 23 March 2020, Harry was christened at a joint ceremony with Eve Dingle and Theo Metcalfe.

Cara Robinson

Cara Robinson, portrayed by Carryl Thomas, made her first appearance on 9 January 2020. Cara is introduced as the mother of established character Nate Robinson, who arrives in the village after receiving a voicemail from Moira Dingle about the affair Moira had with Nate. Cara attempts to persuade Nate to leave the village with her, but he stays in Emmerdale. When Nate is accidentally shot by Cain Dingle, she returns, suspicious of Cain and Moira. However, as he feels guilty over the affair, Nate covers for them by lying to Cara about what happened, saying he was shot by random farm hustlers, and she leaves again.
The character's backstory states that Cara was in a relationship with Cain, but Cain's stepfather, Shadrach Dingle, detested the pair together due to his racism. Cara fell pregnant, and when Cain's mother Faith Dingle found out, she persuaded her to leave. After having the baby, Nate, Cara made numerous attempts to contact Cain but Faith intercepted in an attempt to cover up what she had done.
In October 2020, it was announced that Thomas would be reprising her role, with Cara set to make her onscreen return later in the month. Carell told Digital Spy: "I don't know how long Cara is back for, but with the whole situation of Nate taking the rap for Belle, Tracy gets involved and wants to do the best she can to prevent that. She calls for Cara's help. Cara comes back to the village in the hope of changing Nate's mind. For how long who knows, but she's going to be making an appearance. That's amazing for me." He added: "Nate and Cara have a really strong relationship. Out of everyone, Nate's relationship with Cara is the strongest and most loving, as she is all he has had. There's a lot of legs with that relationship so it'll be interesting to see." Laura-Jayne Tyler from Inside Soap questioned why Cara was not a regular character, writing that she is "the best new character in years!"

DI Dent

Detective Inspector Dent, portrayed by Linda Armstrong, is a police officer who investigated the murder of Graham Foster, who actually faked his death. She first appeared on 27 January 2020 alongside [|DS Ward], who was helping investigate Graham's faked murder at the hands of Pierce Harris. Upon her arrival fans recognised Armstrong from previous roles, including ITV long-running drama The Royal, with Justin Harp from Digital Spy saying: "Viewers will just have to wait and see if DI Dent can rely on some of Sister Brigid's divine intervention to catch Pierce Harris before it's too late!" Harp also described Armstrong: "With such an iconic role on her CV, it's no wonder some Emmerdale viewers were having flashbacks in Monday's episode."
On 16 January 2026, Dent reappeared after Graham's death was revealed to be fake during the Corriedale crossover episode. She arrives in Emmerdale after Joe Tate hired a private investigator to see if Graham was still alive after seeing him in the hospital. She tells Joe that she could confirm that Graham was dead, but later called someone, presumably Graham, to say she had told Joe all he needed to know.

DI Mark Malone

Detective Inspector Mark Malone, portrayed by Mark Womack, made his first appearance on 5 March 2020. Mark is a former colleague of Harriet Finch, and the boss of Will Taylor former gang. Mark arrives in the village to investigate the shooting of Nate Robinson. He is later revealed to be a corrupted police officer, and he blackmails Will, Cain Dingle and Billy Fletcher into working for him, threatening their arrest if they do not comply. When he is reintroduced to Harriet, the two begin to have an affair behind Will's back. When he learns that Harriet and Will are set to get married, Mark attempts to frame Will for possession of drugs. When Will learns what he is trying to do, he attacks Mark by bludgeoning him with a spanner. After Mark threatens Dawn Taylor, she reports him to the police. When Mark learns of Dawn's police report, he tries to force her to suicide with heroin, which is interrupted when Harriet bludgeons him over the head. He gets up and attempts to fight, until Dawn shoots him three times, killing him.
Upon the announcement of his casting, the Emmerdale Twitter account described him as a "police officer with a dark history". In an interview with Stephen Patterson of Metro, actor Womack talked about his character saying: "He likes messing with people's heads, especially Will's. I think he's generally just enjoys the whole game of it all. That's his thing, there's a bit of him that just enjoys manipulating people and getting them into situations and controlling people and that might be his downfall. He kind of loses control along the way and that might be what gets him." He hinted that Mark could be responsible for his own downfall, as well as the downfall of other characters, and added that he enjoys playing a villain. Talking to Inside Soap, Womack described Mark as "very dastardly", and stated that "you wouldn’t want to lock horns with him". He added: "Malone will stop at nothing to get what he wants and is very Machiavellian. Even though Malone's a policeman, he behaves in much the same way as the criminals he’s going after."

Paul Ashdale

Paul Ashdale, portrayed by Reece Dinsdale, made his first appearance on 15 April 2020. Upon his casting, it was revealed that Paul would have a connection to established characters Mandy Dingle and her adoptive son, Vinny. On his casting, Dinsdale commented "I'm absolutely delighted to be joining the cast of Emmerdale. Having recently directed a couple of episodes and seen at close quarters the superb work the cast, crews, and creatives produce, I can't wait to become part of the team once again – albeit in a different capacity." Paul is revealed to be the ex-partner of Mandy, as well as the biological father of Vinny. It has been suggested that Paul and Mandy will rekindle their relationship.
Upon his arrival in Emmerdale, Mandy sees him and confronts him. He asks to see Vinny, but Mandy states that she does not know of his whereabouts. However, when Paul sees Vinny in the village, he confronts him, using the alias Alex to befriend him. Mandy sees the pair together, and texts Paul from Vinny's phone, asking to meet him. When she meets with Paul, she insists that he should leave the village, until Vinny interrupts. When Vinny presses the pair, they admit that Paul is his father. Despite Mandy's mistrust of Paul, she allows the pair to see each other, and eventually, Paul rekindles his relationship with Mandy. Vinny discovers that Paul has a gambling addiction, and finds that Paul has stolen money from the Dingle family and a watch from Ellis Chapman. Vinny asks him to attend an online addiction group, but when he discovers that Paul has not attended, he presses him to get help, and threatens to tell Mandy. Paul punches Vinny, and assaults him further while he is on the floor. Unwilling to tell Mandy, they claim that Vinny was the victim of a random assault.
Liv Flaherty confronts Paul after she discovers his role in Vinny's beating. The two argue in a barn and Paul assaults her, first slapping her then repeatedly kicking her after throwing her the floor. Just as Paul goes to kick Liv again, Jimmy King, blinded by sunlight, accidentally crashes his van into the barn. Liv is able to get to her feet and Paul begs her to help him as his legs are broken, Liv forces him to admit he beat up his son, but she then refuses and leaves. Paul then curses Liv and attempts to crawl out of the wreckage. Just as Liv is about to return, the barn explodes after a spark of flame hit gas canisters. Paul, Liv and Jimmy all become unconscious and are then rushed to hospital. This then results in Paul going into cardiac arrest from his injuries. Mandy begs the doctors to save Paul but they are unable to as he flatlines and dies.
Dinsdale was contracted on Emmerdale as a director, but was asked if he would play the role of Paul. Dinsdale enjoyed portraying Paul as he felt that Paul became "a fully rounded character" due to the arc given to him with abusing Vinny. He appreciated that writers did not make Paul villainous from his introduction, but rather "let his badness slowly bleed out". On Paul's death, Dinsdale stated that he was glad to leave "with a bang", and felt that his exit topped his exit as Joe McIntyre on the ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. COVID restrictions had an effect on the filming process of Paul's death stunt, which he described as "painstaking", due to the attention to detail and safety. Although it was confirmed that Emmerdale would be featuring the death of a character, the identity of the victim was unknown until the episode was transmitted. Dinsdale stated that he found it difficult to do interviews for the press for over a month without being able to say anything publicly. Despite this, he was "thrilled" that it was kept a secret. Following his onscreen exit, Dinsdale continued working on Emmerdale as a director.