Chelsea Fox

Chelsea Fox
EastEnders character
Portrayed by	Tiana Benjamin
Introduced by	Kate Harwood
Duration	2006–10
First appearance	5 May 2006
Last appearance	5 August 2010
Classification	Former; regular
Profile
Date of birth	20 May 1986
Occupation	Beautician (2006–09, 2010) Shop assistant (2008–09) Barmaid (2010)
Family Father Lucas Johnson Mother Denise Johnson Half brothers Jordan Johnson Half sisters Libby Fox Grandmothers Ada Fox Aunts Kim Fox Daphne Fox Gloria MacDonald

Chelsea Fox is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Tiana Benjamin. She first appeared on 5 May 2006 and was joined by her mother Denise and her half sister Libby. Benjamin announced her departure from the show in April 2010. Her final episode was broadcast on 5 August 2010.

Storylines

Upon Chelsea's arrival, she dates Grant Mitchell, unaware he is dating her to make Jane Collins jealous. Grant sleeps with Chelsea but Denise finds out and Grant ends the relationship. Chelsea finds employment at Tanya Branning's salon, Booty and dates Sean Slater, but takes the relationship more seriously as he continues pursuing other women, including Tanya and Carly Wicks. Trying to keep Sean away from Carly, Chelsea sets her up on a date with Warren Stamp, who tries assaulting Carly. Sean rescues her and animosity between the girls escalates, particularly when Sean dumps Chelsea for Carly. Carly's brother, Deano, is attracted to Chelsea so she seduces him into helping her sabotage Carly and Sean's relationship. When Patrick Trueman is attacked, Chelsea and Deano frame Sean, stealing CCTV evidence that clears Sean but Carly finds it and gives it to the police. They release Sean and charge Chelsea and Deano with perverting the course of justice. Sean gets revenge by cutting Chelsea's hair while she sleeps. She and Deano are sentenced to six months imprisonment and released after three.

Helped by her sister, Libby, Chelsea traces her father, Lucas Johnson, who left her and Denise 20 years ago. She confronts him, revealing that she is his daughter but leaves before he responds. Two months later, Lucas appears. Chelsea is reluctant to see him but eventually agrees to go out for a birthday meal. However, she leaves on discovering that she has a half-brother, Jordan.

She buys drugs from Sean and steals money from work to buy more but gets beaten up by a group of girls. Tanya fires her and Patrick catches her taking cocaine. He locks her in her room and calls Lucas to help. When he arrives, Chelsea has escaped through the bedroom window. Lucas finds her in R&R nightclub, high on cocaine, and takes her home. Chelsea gets her job back at Booty. She meets Theo Kelly, and they start a relationship but feels that she does not fit in with his university friends, cheating on him with a footballer named Ellis Prince, who offers her drugs. Chelsea tells Theo about her one-night stand, and he forgives her, saying everyone makes mistakes but she insists they are wrong for each other, dating Ellis instead. Lucas finds the drugs Ellis gave her and confronts Chelsea. She leaves with Ellis, leaving a note for her family but returns on Libby's birthday, demanding to know why Libby's grandmother, Liz Turner is in Albert Square, forcing her to admit she has been visiting her father, Owen Turner, in prison and is glad that he is going to be released. Chelsea is cautious of her family's safety when Owen returns to the Square, and pleads with him not to bring up the suspicious death of Lucas's ex-wife Trina Johnson again as Denise was a suspect and could get in trouble.

Chelsea and Roxy Mitchell both pursue Doctor Al Jenkins, becoming rivals as the doctor is dating them both without telling the other. Chelsea assists Jordan in his protest to get a tree planted in Trina's memory and wins Al over. However, just before Chelsea and Al get together, Roxy turns up at his office dressed as a nurse, to which Chelsea storms out in embarrassment. Despite this, when Roxy inherits The Queen Victoria public house, she employs Chelsea as a barmaid. Denise sets Chelsea up on a blind date with an associate of Lucas's called Matthew, but Chelsea does not enjoy the date and tells Jack Branning she wants to leave. While she is in the toilet, Jack tells Matthew that Chelsea has a boyfriend, causing him to leave. Chelsea and Jack then begin a relationship, and Chelsea starts working at the salon again, now named Roxy's. When Jack is shot and hospitalised, Chelsea declares her love for him. However, Jack ends the relationship. Later, Chelsea and her colleague Amira Masood worry that they are both pregnant, and take pregnancy tests. It turns out that Amira is not pregnant but Chelsea is. She wants to keep the baby but changes her mind about telling Jack as it would not change anything, however, she does not want to be a single mother. After Denise sees Chelsea crying and then spending time with Zainab Masood's baby Kamil, she tells Libby she thinks Chelsea is pregnant. Chelsea admits the truth, and Denise has a heart-to-heart with her, which Lucas joins in later. She takes the test again, finds out that she is not pregnant, and tells both her parents that she'll make her own decisions. She tells Amira that Amira's pregnancy test was positive and promises to keep it a secret for her when she leaves Walford after finding out that her husband Syed is gay.

Chelsea goes on to celebrate her birthday and discovers Denise has put a picture of Chelsea on the newspaper wearing a cowboy suit. Much to Chelsea's embarrassment she decides to buy all the newspaper so people will not continue to mock her. When Roxy discovers it is Chelsea's birthday she decides to throw her a western themed birthday. Chelsea starts to fall for the DJ but Roxy is caught kissing him.

When Owen's body is discovered buried under the Square, Denise is taken for questioning. Chelsea thinks that Denise may have killed both Trina and Owen as Lucas had told her that Denise was hiding Trina's bracelet in her bag. Chelsea tells Libby about the bracelet, and after Denise is released without charge, they see her driving away from the Square alone, and then they receive a text message from her saying "I'm sorry", though in reality, Lucas had killed Owen and confessed to Denise, taken her to a canal and strangled her, sending the text message before throwing the phone in the canal. The police tell the family that Denise's car has been found by the canal, before a body is pulled from the water along with Denise's mobile phone. Chelsea wonders who her mother really is and says it makes her some kind of monster. She offers to go with Lucas to identify the body, but she is unable to go in so goes in alone and identifies it as Denise's, leaving Chelsea devastated. Chelsea believes that her mother killed Owen and then herself. After Denise's funeral, Chelsea and Libby agree to start packing up Denise's belongings. While celebrating Libby's birthday, Denise walks in, revealing that she is not dead but that Lucas has been keeping her prisoner, and that he was the one who killed Trina and Owen. Chelsea tells her to stay away from her, saying she is a murderer. Lucas enteres and confirms that Denise is telling the truth but Chelsea says he is covering up for her and she faked her own death. However, Lucas takes the family hostage, but when Jordan arrives, they escape and Lucas is arrested.

Chelsea says she no longer has a normal family, and argues with Libby over their parents. After speaking to Liz, Chelsea decides she wants to move to Spain with her, as people in Walford will only ever think of her as the daughter of a murderer. Denise initially argues with Chelsea about this, but then agrees, encouraging Libby to go with Chelsea for a holiday before she returns to university. After leaving drinks in The Queen Victoria pub, Chelsea, Libby and Liz leave Walford in the back of a taxi.

In November 2011, Amira states that Chelsea is living in Málaga, Spain.

Creation and development

On 12 January 2006, an official BBC press report announced the introduction of a new character to EastEnders, Chelsea Fox. Chelsea was due to be part of a new, all female family joining the show, with Chelsea's mother Denise and her sister Libby (played by Diane Parish and Belinda Owusu respectively) completing the clan. The role was cast to Tiana Benjamin, who was 21 at the time. Benjamin has revealed that she was the second Fox to be cast, and on her final audition, she had a workshop and met Diane Parish there. Owusu was cast at a later date.^[1] Of her casting, Benjamin said "I've been a big fan of EastEnders since I was little and I'm very excited to join the show. I've always really admired Diane [Parish] and I can't wait to work with her - it really hasn't sunk in yet! [...] It's one of those jobs that's unlike any other. There's a lot that changes when you take on something as big as EastEnders. I [am] really happy and genuinely excited to be a part of the show."^[1][2] She added that the three actors who play the Fox family have a bond, commenting "We all respect and understand each other, and manage to have a good time while we're filming too. I felt that we clicked from our first few scenes together."^[1] Benjamin quit her role as Angelina Johnson in the successful Harry Potter film series, in order to take the part. Chelsea made her first screen appearance in May 2006 and was the first of the Fox family to be seen by viewers.

On 2 April 2010 it was announced that Benjamin had chosen to leave the show to pursue other projects. Of her decision, she said "I have had an amazing time at EastEnders and this has been a very difficult decision for me to make but now seems like the right time to move on and leave Chelsea behind even through she's been such a fantastic character to play."^[3] Her final episode was broadcast on 5 August 2010.^[4]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Tiana Benjamin Interview". BBC. 18 September 2006. http://www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders/backstage/cast/interviews/interview_content/interview_tiana_b.shtml. Retrieved 26 July 2008. 
2. ^ "Harry Potter star to join EastEnders". BBC Press Office. 12 January 2006. http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/01_january/12/eastenders.shtml. Retrieved 26 July 2008. 
3. ^ Green, Kris (2 April 2010). "Tiana Benjamin quits 'EastEnders'". Digital Spy. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s2/eastenders/news/a212028/tiana-benjamin-quits-eastenders.html. Retrieved 2 April 2010. 
4. ^ Green, Kris; Kilkelly, Daniel (July 2010). "Peggy takes Louise to see Lisa". Digital Spy. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s2/eastenders/spoilers/a239089/peggy-takes-louise-to-see-lisa.html. Retrieved 27 July 2010. 

External links

• Chelsea Fox at BBC Online
• Profile of Chelsea Fox What's on TV