29-04-2025
EastEnders fans rediscover Chelsea Fox star's forgotten Coronation Street role
Gobsmacked EastEnders fans have unearthed Chelsea Fox star Zaraah Abrahams' former Coronation Street role.
The actress, 38, found fame as Magda in the TV adaption of Jacqueline Wilson's Girls in Love in 2003, before playing Michaela White in Waterloo Road for two years.
For the last five years she's appeared as Chelsea in the BBC soap, assuming the role from original actress Tiana Benjamin.
Some of her biggest storylines have included a relationship with abuser Gray Atkins (Toby-Alexander Smith), and later developing Stockholm syndrome.
We've also seen her feud with Penny Branning (Kitty Castledine) when she framed her for enabling a mass crushing in Peggy's bar.
More recently, Chelsea was furious to learn that mother Denise (Diane Parish) was sleeping with her ex-boyfriend Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara).
However, years before the drama of Albert Square, actress Zaraah was treading the cobbles of Weatherfield.
Between 2005 and 2007, she played Underworld worker Joanne Jackson.
Arriving alongside her 'identical twin sister' Jessie (Nailah Cumberbatch), the girls finished one another's sentences and dressed in the same outfits – before eventually admitting that they were actually cousins.
Joanne had relationships with mechanic Nathan Harding (Ray Fearon) and her boss' son Jamie Baldwin (Rupert Hill), before moving on to Adam Barlow (Sam Robertson).
The latter love is playing out on our screens each afternoon in ITV3's Classic Corrie repeats, which has caught the attention of soap fans.
'Just flicked onto #ClassicCorrie. OMG I didn't know Zaraah Abrahams (Chelsea Fox in #EastEnders) was on Classic Corrie' said one viewer on X.
Another replied: 'Yes has been for a while. Just a small part though…'
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In disbelief, a third added: 'I cannot believe you did not know. Surely! She also starred in Waterloo Road after she left Weatherfield.' More Trending
Later plots included Joanne being arrested by immigration officers, after confiding in Hayley Cropper (Julie Hesmondhalgh) that she came illegally to the UK from Liberia as a child.
After being released from a detention centre, Carla Connor (Alison King) fired her from the factory and Joanne threatened to take her to an employment tribunal.
She also accused Liam Connor (Rob James-Collier) of sexual harassment, and was handed a £5,000 pay out in exchange for her silence before fleeing the area.
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Classic Coronation Street airs weekdays from 2:40pm on ITV3.
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