EastEnders actor Toby-Alexander Smith has returned to the BBC soap after a four-year break- here’s everything you need to know
EastEnders star Toby-Alexander Smith met his wife from rival soap Emmerdale while watching Strictly Come Dancing.
The 35-year-old actor has reprised his role as Walford serial killer Gray Atkins after more than four years away.
The twisted villain, as viewers know, arrived in Walford in 2019 with wife Chantelle Atkins (Jessica Plummer), whom he was abusing behind closed doors, and, in devastating scenes the following year, he murdered her.
Over the next two years, Gray would kill Kush Kazemi (Davood Ghadami) and Tina Carter (Luisa Bradshaw-White) and embark on a relationship with unsuspecting Chelsea Fox (Zaraah Abrahams), who later gave birth to their son Jordan.
With some help from Whitney Dean (Shona McGarty), Gray finally paid for his crimes and was sent to prison in 2022, with Chelsea subsequently moving on with her life, until now.
Gray’s grandmother, Sheila (Sheila Ruskin), has managed to worm her way into Chelsea’s life after Jordan (Jahsaiah Williams) was hit by Ian Beale’s (Adam Woodyatt) car and is now wheelchair bound.
Sheila has been providing Chelsea with cash and wants to spend more time with her grandson since he has returned home from the hospital. But her unannounced visits have left Chelsea furious as Sheila is breaking boundaries.
On Monday (June 29), Shelia feared she would lose access to Jordan permanently, and took desperate measures by visiting Gray in prison and asking for his help in keeping Jordan in their lives. Will Gray succeed in having Jordan back in his life?
Famous wife
Away from EastEnders, actor Toby-Alexander Smith isn’t the only soap star in his family, as he is married to Emmerdale star Amy Walsh, 39, who plays Tracy Robinson on the ITV show.
The couple first met in 2019 after a chance encounter in the Strictly Come Dancing audience, before getting together a year later.
Amy was in the audience of the BBC reality show to support her Emmerdale co-star Kelvin Fletcher, while Toby was cheering on co-star Emma Barton, who plays Walford’s Honey Mitchell.
“It was just pure chance that we were both there [on Strictly] that night, sat in the front row,” Amy said of their first meeting during an episode of Loose Women. “We were just chatting all night and really got on.”
Toby and Amy welcomed their first child together, daughter Bonnie, in December 2021, before announcing their engagement almost a year later in August 2022.
In 2023, the couple married in the mountains of Montenegro, joined by their loved ones, including Girls Aloud singer Kimberly Walsh, Amy’s sister, and EastEnders star Shona McGarty, who surprised the couple by performing a duet with singer Sonny Tennent.
“It was honestly the most perfect day,” Amy said in an interview with OK! magazine. “It surpassed all my expectations and more.”
She added, “I felt so surprisingly present on the day and loved every second. Now I’m just in pure bliss.”
In March, Amy and Toby welcomed a second daughter, Nell Rose. Taking to Instagram, she announced her newborn’s arrival with a sweet black-and-white photo of her daughter’s feet, while she was dressed in a cute baby grow with flowers on it.
The proud mum captioned it: “This time last week I was heading into established labour. We’ve been in the most magical bubble ever since.”
What else has Toby-Alexander been in?
Following Toby’s EastEnders exit in 2022, he went on to star as Charles Bingley in the period drama An American in Austen in 2024 and also portrayed Charles Barkley V in the movie Love Across Time.
This year, he stars as Sydney in the Prime Video movie, A Murder Between Friends.
The ‘whodunnit’ sees six old friends become entangled in a lethal mystery while staying at the lavish country estate of a true-crime TV personality.
The murder mystery is touted as ‘stylish and fun’, with one of the six meeting their end under peculiar circumstances.
Dame Joan Collins portrays ‘showbiz detective’ Francesca Carlyle in the movie, who is also a co-producer alongside Percy Gibson and writer Mark Rozzano.
Toby will also share the screen with Nadia Bjorlin, Jacob Young, Trent Garrett, India Thain, Hana Vagnerová, Jim Borstelmann, Espen Hatleskog, and Emmerdale’s Simon Cotton.
He is also starring as Harry Windover in Prime Video’s regency romance, Seeking Persephone.
EastEnders airs Monday to Thursday on BBC One and iPlayer
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