EastEnders fans have been left stunned by former star Jo Joyner’s new look.
The actress, 47, is best known to viewers of the BBC One soap as Tanya Branning – a role she played across several stints between 2006 and 2018.
Some of her biggest stories included discovering husband Max’s (Jake Wood) affair with Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) on Christmas Day, and then – when she finally reunited with Max – finding out he was a bigamist.
The last time we saw her on screen was to say goodbye to daughter Abi (Lorna Fitzgerald), who died after falling from the roof of The Queen Vic.
Months later, it was then revealed that Tanya was in a mental health facility, struggling to cope with the loss of her middle child.
Since leaving The Square, Jo has starred in Channel 4 school-based soap Ackley Bridge, leading a number of 5 dramas and playing the lead in drama Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators.
She’s also appearing in new Paramount Plus thriller Little Disasters.
The series follows four women who are bonded by motherhood, but are then torn apart when one of the group is accused of injuring her baby. Jo’s character – an A&E doctor – is then left with a predicament… whether or not to contact social services.
The actress recently spoke to Metro about being compared to Nicole Kidman, after the show was branded as the next Big Little Lies.
However, following an appearance on The One Show last night, it wasn’t the new Paramount drama that caught viewers’ attention, but rather Jo’s new look.
Throughout her time on EastEnders and Ackley Bridge, she sported a luscious blonde weave – but her locks have now been dyed a dark brown colour.
She looks worlds away from her Walford days!
‘Jo Joyner has dyed her hair brown and didn’t recognise her at first. She looks great. #TheOneShow #EastEnders’ said one fan on X.
Praising her brunette weave, another added: ‘#theoneshow Jo Joyner out of EastEnders she’s looking good, good actress too.’
In 2023, she ruled out a return to EastEnders, citing that she preferred to play a variety of different roles.
But there is one former part she has her eyes on. In 2005, she played a guest role in Doctor Who, and told us that she would go back to travelling with The Doctor in a heartbeat.
‘The wonderful thing about Doctor Who is that you could go back a million times with a million different faces and no one would know, well, the Whovians would know. But you could play all sorts,’ she explained.
‘It’s endless, boundless imagination for something like Doctor Who. I’m very proud to have been part of the franchise, and I would definitely do it again.’
