Megan Jossa arrived in the square 16 years ago as part of the infamous Mitchell family!
Fans of the BBC One serial opera EastEnders will be aware that Jacqueline Jossa portrayed Lauren Branning in it. She wasn’t the first member of her family to appear on the show, either.
Years before Jacqueline ever set foot in Walford, her younger cousin Megan, now 26 years old, played a leading role in the BBC One soap opera. Grant and Tiffany Mitchell’s daughter, Courtney Mitchell, was born in 1997, but when she was only two years old, she and her father vanished from Walford.
The apple never falls too far from the tree, as they say, and if we go back to 2005, Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp) came to Walford with his daughter Courtney in tow. She was a little tearaway.
Even though she was still a young girl, Courtney wasn’t shy about picking on her cousin Ben Mitchell, especially after he accused Grant of being to blame for her mother’s passing. Following a disagreement with Grant, Tiffany Mitchell was run over and killed by Frank Butcher in 1998.
After Dirty Den was slain in The Queen Vic, Grant and Courtney returned to Albert Square, where Grant, along with brother Phil, tried to prevent sister Sam from being held responsible for the crime. The father and daughter weren’t there for very long because they left the square in 2006 to start again in Portugal.
Megan Jossa, Jacqueline’s actual cousin from Eltham, took over the role of Courtney during this time. In August 2016, Alice Noakes was cast in the newly recast role of Courtney.
Megan played Debbie in Billy Elliot the Musical at the Victoria Palace Theatre in the West End between 2008 and 2009 after leaving EastEnders. Between 2010 and 2018, Lauren Branning was portrayed by Jacqueline, a first cousin.
