Doctor Maya Lahan is a fictional character from the British espionage television series Spooks, which follows the exploits of Section D, a counter-terrorism division in MI5. She is portrayed by British actress Laila Rouass. Maya is introduced in the ninth series of the programme as the first love and former girlfriend of John Bateman (who changed his name to Lucas North) fifteen years before the events of the series. Rouass' involvement in the series was first announced in March 2010, with her character name revealed later in May. Because Maya was only a background character, Rouass's role was limited, did not perform any stunts and had time to perform other projects. The actress liked working with Richard Armitage, who played Lucas, as she knew him for some years prior to working on Spooks. The character was met with generally mixed reviews from critics. Role in Spooks Character arc Maya Lahan was born in York on 20 September 1975. She became the girlfriend of John Bateman (Richard Armitage) whilst attending Leeds University. Maya was once aspired to open her own Tapas bar. When John became stuck in Dakar, he worked with Vaughn Edwards (Iain Glen) as a courier in order to get back home, but Maya remained unaware of his activities. Vaughn remembered that during their time, John would talk to him about Maya for hours at a time. However, after he was involved in the bombing of a British Embassy in 1995, John was forced to leave Maya and murder friend Lucas North, and since started masquerading as him. In the belief that John died, Maya got on with her life, becoming a doctor and enters a relationship with Vaughn (whom she knows as Michael). Fifteen years later, in the first episode of the ninth series, Vaughn visits Lucas and leaves him with several mementos of his former life, including pictures of him and Maya. Lucas finds the hospital where she works to meet her. However, Maya coldly rejects him, stating she moved on with somebody else, and that she no longer needs him. By the end of the third episode however, Lucas invites her to his home and the two have sex on a kitchen table, thus restarting their relationship. However, over the course of the series, Vaughn has been manipulating Lucas, by giving him Maya back into his life, in order to get his hands on an MI5