Sex Education 's Patricia Allison Reveals She's Pursuing 'Other Opportunities,' Will Not Return as Ola

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Sex Education is losing one of its core cast members next season as Patricia Allison announced she will not be returning.

"I absolutely have loved being on Sex Education so, so much … but unfortunately, I won't be joining the team for season 4," the 27-year-old actress who plays Ola, told the U.K. radio show Breakfast with Yinka and Shayna Marie on Tuesday. "I'm so sorry to have to break that to you guys. But some other opportunities have come up. I've been doing it for three years, and I've genuinely loved it so much."

When asked if making the choice to leave the show was hard, Allison said, "Absolutely, but I guess I have to say goodbye at some time, which is kind of sad, but other things are coming and that's really exciting."

Sex Education was picked up for season 4 last September, just one week after the release of season 3.

RELATED: First Look at Jemima Kirke in Season 3 of Sex Education

The show follows the sexual explorations of a class of British high school students at Moordale Secondary School. Allison's character Ola was initially introduced during the first season. In 2020, she addressed the unique way the show handles sexuality for their teenage viewers.

"We don't make the sex scenes too sexy. They're not sexy or glamorized or grotesque," she told The Upcoming. "And I think that's really interesting to see. In terms of nudity, it's awkward and embarrassing and we take these moments and give them a dialogue. And I don't think that's ever been done before."

David M. Benett/Dave Benett/WireImage

Allison's former costar Simone Ashley recently shared behind-the-scenes insights from Sex Education's intimacy training.

"We explored the movement of different animals to kind of portray different paces or different sexualities or how sensual something could be," Ashley, 27, told the Los Angeles Times' podcast The Envelope. "For example, we look to how snails mate, and when snails mate, they actually produce a plasma that intertwines."

The idea was that these different kinds of animal mating routines could inspire different onscreen connections for the Sex Education actors.

"So if it was a really sensual, slow kind of scene, we'd be like, 'Oh, it's like the snail.' And it's super like the plasma, like falling like honey. So we would make it about that or how dogs mate or chimpanzees mate — it's very like fast-paced and a different kind of style," she continued.

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Sex Education also stars Asa Butterfield, Gillian Anderson, Emma Mackey, Ncuti Gatwa, Connor Swindells and Kedar Williams-Stirling. Seasons 1–3 are streaming on Netflix now.