"Misfits" star Lauren Socha is leaving the popular Channel 4 teen drama and will not return for the fourth season. According to BBC, the BAFTA winner was sentenced to four months in prison after she admitted to racially aggravated assault on a taxi driver.
Channel 4 said in a statement that the arrest and Socha's departure from the series are not related.
"A mutual decision was reached between Clerkenwell [Films, which produces "Misfits"] and Lauren earlier this year that she would not be returning for the fourth series," Channel 4 said in a statement.
The fourth season of "Misfits" -- which airs on Hulu in the US and has an American remake in the works with "The OC's" Josh Schwartz and original series creator Howard Overman -- was planned to launch in late 2012. Socha isn't the only original cast member exiting the series. Both Antonia Thomas and Iwan Rheon have left the series.
"You know what? Without sounding disrespectful, 'Misfits' is 'Misfits,'" Socha told The Huffington Post via phone about the potential American version. "We've won the BAFTA. I've got a BAFTA. We don't need to prove to anyone else. Obviously, they're going to take it to a higher level, with a production team and stuff like that. If America wants to try and smash it, they can, but at the end of the day, they've got 'Shameless' and 'The Office' over there. Competition is absolutely nothing because with English telly, you start with something and then you leave it as that. And I think it's going to be very difficult to try and get a job as Kelly in America. She's so distinctive! I'm impossible to play! Good luck to it, though. I think I'll be a bit gutted, but let's see what they do."