Hi! I’m a Chelmsford based professional singer and actress, with over 30 years of experience bringing jazz, show tunes, soul, pop and party classics to life. From the West End stage to golf clubs, dinner dances and care homes, I’ve performed 100s of gigs all over the UK.
If you are looking for some fun and sassy entertainment with a little bit of "Diva" thrown in, then look no further!
ON STAGE AND SCREEN
My journey began at the age of 14 when I was cast in the West End production of Annie at the Victoria Palace - thanks to an ad in my weekly comic, Jackie! As soon as I was bitten by the bug there was just no stopping me. Fast forward 20 years and I had clocked up a whole load of great roles in shows such as Les Miserables, Grease, Hair, Rocky Horror Show, James and the Giant Peach, Hot Stuff, Rock Hard, A Slice of Saturday Night, Oliver, The Beggars Opera, Lust, Viva Espana... and many more. I also discovered a real love for the intimacy of the Fringe and performed in some classic variety shows and revues all around London and the UK, including Bette Midler and Me, Jewish Legends and That's Jewish Entertainment at the Gatehouse Theatre in Highgate for which I received an Offie Award nomination for best Female performer in a Musical, and was well chuffed!
I also featured in the Epic feature film Revolution playing the role of Amy McConnahay and can lay claim to being a Bond girl in the iconic Goldeneye!
On TV, I could be seen in both series of Joint Account, The Bill, Keeping Mum, Don't Tell the Bride (the surprise singer at Lakeside shopping centre ep!) and Strange but True.
"Joanna has a remarkable talent and charm which cannot be recommended highly enough"
A BIT OF VARIETY
When I produced my own one woman show at the prestigious Pizza on the Park in Soho, the Greenwich Theatre and the Millfield Theatre, I realised that this was a turning point for me in my career. It led to my headlining many Musical Theatre concert tours, including Showstoppers, Spirit of the Musicals, Putting on the Ritz and West End to Broadway.
Then came Cabaret - I became a founder member of several acts. The highly esteemed jazz trio, Girls Who Wear Glasses, Motown trio, The Corsettes and the high end Musical Theatre duo, Drop Dead Divas. I sang backing vocals for Michael Ball and Stephanie Lawrence, and featured on 3 tours with the one and only Alvin Stardust, who taught me so much about the entertainment industry, and how to really rock n' roll!
Following this I became lead vocalist with different function bands, notably the fabulous Essex based party band, Ready Steady Go, who specialised in Motown and all things 1960s.
Today I am regularly gigging at a whole variety of events and venues as a solo performer. I either work with high quality backing tracks or with my Musical Director Sarah Travis on keyboard, who is a Tony Award winning Orchestrator and Composer, and has shared this journey with me from when it all began.
So you can probably gather that my influences are pretty diverse, which is why I can offer you a great variety of styles from jazz, oldies and showtunes to 60s, rock n' roll and floor fillers. All tried, tested and approved.
" Superb voice, great choice of material and fantastic rapport with the audience."
IN THE STUDIO
I am also a voiceover artist and am the very proud winner of a One Voice Award for my character reel.
Running alongside my theatre and singing work, I have always been very heavily involved in the wonderful world of voiceovers. It all began when I recorded the role of Deborah Rat in the animation series - The Untouchables of Elliot Mouse. I discovered an absolute passion for creating character voices and continued to work for production companies such as Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, ITV and Manga Films, dubbing foreign versions of their films and cartoons into English.
This then led to working on The Wonder Pets, f***ing and blinding as an ADR artist on Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen, narrating educational videos for BBC Bitesize, recording over 50 audiobooks which are currently listed on Audible, voicing all the Beano characters voices for EE's international advertising campaign, murdering aliens and saving the world on several videogames for Games Workshop, .... plus multiple radio ads, corporate videos, telephone messages and animations ... all from the comfort of my home recording booth in Chelmsford, where I can talk to myself to my heart's content!
Over the years I've also worked as a session singer, recording theme songs, demos of new musicals, material for new composers and I can be heard singing lead vocals as Sue on the original A Slice of Saturday Night album.