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EastEnders puts out Meghan Hawkins casting call teasing key job - and she's "impossible to intimidate"
The Hawkins family is set to grow again, with a fiery new arrival lined up behind the bar.
BBC/Jack Barnes
- Lewis Knight
Published: Monday, 24 August 2026 at 2:53 pm
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Meghan Hawkins is on her way to EastEnders...
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Bosses from the BBC One soap have been revealed to be on the hunt for a new leading lady, having put out a casting call for Meghan, a character teased as "confident, gorgeous and ready to cause chaos".
The breakdown issued by BBC Studios and shared by Variety describes the character as needing a female actor aged around 30, and confirms she will take on a "senior member of the team behind a bar", strongly hinting at a key job in one of Walford's boozers - perhaps as a barmaid in the Queen Vic or bartending at her relatives' establishment Harry's Barn.
Meghan is set to join the Hawkins family, the estranged relatives of Nicola Mitchell (Laura Doddington) who first crashed into Albert Square in August.
Radio Times has reached out to the BBC for further comment on this story.
We're yet to meet Ned (Jamie Bamber) and his son Ryder (Felix Uff). BBC/Jack Barnes
As previously reported, she is the daughter of Gemma Hawkins (Patricia Potter), whose husband Ned Roper (Jamie Bamber, of Battlestar Galactica and Law & Order: UK fame) and son Ryder (Felix Uff) round out the new clan,
The casting call leans hard into Meghan's fiery personality, comparing her arrival to "an Essex bombshell walking into the 'Love Island' villa" and billing her as "funny, fearless and fiercely loyal".
It goes on to portray Meghan as a hard-working self-starter who has grafted for every penny she has, calling her "warm, charismatic, effortlessly charming".
Executive producer Ben Wadey had already confirmed the character was coming, telling Radio Times and other media at a recent press event that she remained off screen for now.
The Hawkins women so far (L-R): Jodie (Anna Constable), Rose (Marian McLoughlin), Nicola Mitchell (Laura Doddington), and Gemma (Patricia Potter). BBC/Jack Barnes
"Meghan is out there, and we will meet her down the line, but not for a little bit," Wadey said. "She's got her own storyline happening currently off screen, but in time it will very much be on screen."
Wadey added that the writers had done "quite a lot of work already" on the character as part of building the wider family, describing her as "an exciting, probably post-Christmas arrival for us".
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Her introduction was foreshadowed on screen when Gemma and Jodie Hawkins (Anna Constable) were revealed to be holding a man hostage in the boot of their car.
The captive, Leo, was named as the allegedly abusive boyfriend of Gemma's daughter, teeing up Meghan's eventual appearance in Albert Square.
The casting call is open to applicants until 1 September 2026.
EastEnders is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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Authors
Lewis KnightNews and Trends Editor
Lewis is the news and trends editor at Radio Times and leads our approach to news, reactive content, and serving audience demands and interests. An obsessive fan of television and film, Lewis is a Nicole Kidman fanatic with a side of passion for science-fiction, art-house cinema and the latest HBO drama. Lewis has a degree in Psychology and a Masters in Film Studies. After working in advertising, Lewis worked at The Mirror for three years in community management and SEO, showbiz, film and television reporting.
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