Jo Joyner trained at The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama where on graduating she won the ‘Friends’ prize for acting’ for her performance in her one woman show, an adaptation of Roddy Doyle’s ‘The woman who walked into doors’.
Jo moved to Manchester and was a founder member of ‘Homegrown Theatre’ company, creating plays using a method of improvisation and character devising at The Contact and Library Theatres. More theatre work followed, including a tour of Absolute Theatre’s ‘Raw’ in which she played the violent and troubled leader of a gang which saw her nominated for ‘Best Fringe Performer’ at the Manchester Evening News awards. The play went on to win a prestigious ‘Fringe First’ award at the Edinburgh Festival.
Between the theatre and radio work she guested in many TV shows such as ‘Clocking Off’,‘The Cops’ and ‘Second Coming’ until her break came in Channel 4’s ground breaking show about nursing, playing Beth in ‘No Angels’.
Jo went on to star in many more shows including Doctor Who, Eastenders and Ordinary Lies. In the sketch show Swinging her multiple character roles won her the renowned Rose d’Or Award for ‘Best Female Comedy Performer’.
Jo’s most recent shows include: Channel 4’s ‘Ackley Bridge’ where she played Mandy, the ambitious head teacher of an ethnically diverse school, ‘Shakespeare and Hathaway’ for the BBC in which she played loveable detective Luella and ‘Stay Close’ Harlan Coben’s latest thriller for Netflix in which she plays Erin, a smart and witty detective.
Jo appeared as Laura, a lawyer with a dark past, in the Gaumont thriller ‘For Her Sins’ this year and has just finished filming with Hat Trick in series 2 of the comedy Peacocks.