Joyce Highland joined the show in Call the Midwife season 13 and looks set to make her mark in Poplar.
The Trinidadian pupil midwife was raised by her grandma in the West Indies and is described as 'hardworking, fiercely bright and deeply kind'. Before arriving in the East End, she was living in Birmingham where she began her medical training.
She's a high-achieving student and was the recipient of the Sister Dorothea Headley Medal for Student Nurse Excellence, given by Birmingham Teaching Hospital in 1968, and was awarded the Astonbury Cup for her essay on the history of antiseptic.
Joyce is ambitious too, with aspirations to be the Matron of a British hospital one day.
But underneath her cheerful exterior, the student midwife is concealing a traumatic past, which is set to be explored.
Who plays Joyce Highland?
Joyce Highland is played by British actress Renee Bailey.
A relative newcomer to television, Renee's biggest role to date was as Leila Harris in the BBC/Netflix teen 2022 drama, Rebel Cheer Squad: A Get Even Series.
That same year, the actress guest-starred in BBC Three musical series, Mood, which scooped both a BAFTA Television Award and BAFTA Craft Award.
Renee also appeared in miniseries How to Be a Person, which won Best Short Form Programme in 2023.
Her theatre credits include (This Isn't) A True Story at the Almeida Theatre in Islington and Bible John at the 2020 Vaults Festival in Waterloo.
And she has several short films on her CV - A Radical Duet (2023), Sunday Dinner (2023) Breathe (2021) and The Best is Yet To Come (2019) to name three.
Viewers can expect to see Renee playing Esme in the mini movie, The First Time I Never Met You, out for release this year.
Joyce Highland's personality
Joyce is a strong, driven professional, who knows what she wants in life and is prepared to work hard to achieve her goals.
She also has a gentle and kind heart, as actress Renee Bailey explained to Radio Times: "I’ve tried to bring in a little more softness (to the character) as well as qualities that I love in Black women generally. I don’t want Joyce to just be this stereotypical idea of what a strong black woman looks like. She has a lot of tenderness."
Joyce quickly formed a bond with fellow student midwife and her new roommate, Rosalind Clifford, and introduced her to menthol cigarettes, which she used to smoke with her grandmother back in Trinidad.
The character is anti-religion and attending church, which could hint at part of her backstory which will be revealed as the series goes on.
Renee has promised there's plenty more to come, telling us: "Joyce is from a different country, so I had to think about how long she has been here and her whole story. I talked to friends and people from Trinidad, because there are so many different elements we will see to her character and her journey."
