EastEnders alum Natalie Cassidy eyes comedy career
Former EastEnders star Natalie Cassidy wants to become a stand-up comedienne.
Natalie Cassidy wants to be a comedienne.
The 42-year-old actress has set her sights on stand-up and hopes it will lead to a future appearance on Amazon Prime Video's Last One Laughing, which sees 10 comics try not to giggle as they spend time together in a house, with those failing being evicted.
Natalie told the new issue of Bella magazine: "I love Last One Laughing. I'm not saying I'm a comedienne - it'd be series 120 before I get onto it! But I love stand-up comedy, so I'd love to do that show.
"My major career goal is to go to a little pub and try five minutes of stand-up myself. I need to write some jokes first!"
Social media can sometimes provide "a laugh" for Natalie - who has Eliza, 15, with her 45-year-old ex-partner Adam Cottrell, and Joanie, nine, with her fiance, EastEnders cameraman Marc Humphreys.
She explained: "I use social media for work and have a laugh on there, but I'm really lucky because I've got thick skin; I don't care what people think.
"Social media can really affect how people think of themselves. It sucks the joy out of everything because your phone is in your hand all the time, and that's the only thing teenagers really have.
"I held off on getting Eliza a phone until she was in year eight [at school], which is quite late. She's on social media, but she mainly FaceTimes her friends, which is no different to me sitting on the house phone for hours.
"If you use it sensibly, and it doesn't affect you, then it can be great."
Natalie bid farewell to her EastEnders alter ego, National Health Service (NHS) worker Sonia Jackson, in April 2025.
Her character left Walford for Bali with her daughters Rebecca "Bex" Fowler (Jasmine Armfield) and Julia Fowler, and her sister Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer).
And Natalie has felt liberated since she left EastEnders.
She explained to Closer magazine: "I love being myself. I feel very comfortable being me, and I think people are enjoying getting to see me. It's hard to do when people have watched me growing up on EastEnders."
But Natalie has not ruled out reprising her alter ego Sonia in the future.
She joked: "She's living it up in Bali, I don't know what she's getting up to! It is nice to have a little rest for now. I think it's important to rest characters."
