Maggie Steed

Career

After studying drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol, Steed left the theatre for several years. She stated: "Actresses in those days had to be "dolly birds" and I was just Margaret Baker from Plymouth, tall with very gappy teeth, so I became a secretary instead. It was only years later, when I'd grown up politically and become interested in theatre, that I started again and ended up at the Coventry Belgrade Theatre with Clive Russell and Sue Johnston."

Maggie Steed has worked on the stage, and has performed with the Royal National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company and as a comedian. Her first major television role was playing Rita Moon in the series Shine on Harvey Moon. She played Margaret Crabbe in Pie in the Sky and Phyllis Woolf in Born and Bred. Her television credits include appearances on Fox, Minder, Sensitive Skin and Jam and Jerusalem.

In 2008 Steed appeared on tour in Michael Frayn's comedy Noises Off as Mrs Clackett, produced by the Ambassador Theatre Group, which included the New Victoria Theatre, Woking. The cast included Sophie Bould, Colin Baker and Jonathan Coy. In 2010 she appeared in the short film The Miserables, and the following year onstage in a comedy duo role with actress Jackie Clune in a production of The Belle's Stratagem.

In April 2017, it was announced that Steed would be joining the cast of EastEnders as Joyce Murray.

Political activism

Steed was a member of The Campaign Against Racism in the Media, appearing in an edition of the BBC's Open Door series on 1 March 1979 (with Stuart Hall), to criticise British TV representations of immigration and racial stereotypes. She helped write and perform in the comedy benefit concert An Evening for Nicaragua, at the Shaftesbury Theatre, which aired on British television in 1983. The cast included Ben Elton, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Emma Thompson and Rik Mayall.

Steed visited Nicaragua in 1982 with Andy de la Tour.

Theatre