ACTOR Michael Parr says leaving Emmerdale is "scary but exciting" as he leaves his bad-boy Ross character for other work in the US.

Michael, who grew up in Hard Lane, has played Ross Barton on the show for five years but on Friday his final episodes as the "lovable rogue" aired with the 31-year-old eager to take on new roles in America.

Though he doesn’t yet have roles lined up in the US, Michael is heading to Los Angeles to follow his acting dreams.

Speaking to the Star he said: "I left the show seven weeks ago and not seen any of the last episodes yet as I was in Los Angeles and will have to watch them to see how they turned out.

"But I have been inundated with lovely messages since I left, one of my posts about leaving got around 11,000 likes on Twitter which is not normal for me - so I have been made up with the support and hope it will continue moving forward.

"It's been really sad already because the people in scheduling are really kind and in the scenes where I'm saying goodbye to Moira and Pete I felt like I really was saying goodbye so I was actually crying.

"It's the end of a chapter. When I got given the character of Ross in 2013 we didn't know he would be so well liked because he was nasty and the response when playing characters like that can be love or hate but everyone just took to him being a lovable rogue and it's been great to play him.

"Leaving Emmerdale is scary; this is the first time since the age of 14 that I've not had a job, but it's also exciting."

Mike is still in the UK while he looks for a manager and agent in the US, but aims to head over to LA for pilot season in January.

He added: "I wouldn't want to become a regular on a soap in the US as I have just spent so long in one, but I'd like to play different characters in guest spots.

"The kind of roles I'm looking forward to are still the baddie but different kinds of storylines - maybe in a HBO boxset or a Netflix show.

"For me it's more than the part, I didn't get into acting for money or anything, I want to earn enough obviously, but it's about the art of it.

It's a very exciting time but you have to be patient, there are times I worry that I did the right thing leaving Emmerdale but for me personally I feel like if I get comfortable that's when I should give up because I got into this to play different roles."