Zoe Slater

Zoe Slater is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Michelle Ryan. She made her first appearance on 18 September 2000. After much speculation, Ryan decided to leave the role of Zoe, and departed on 24 June 2005.

Zoe arrives in Walford along with her family, presumed father Charlie (Derek Martin), sisters Kat (Jessie Wallace), Lynne (Elaine Lordan) and Little Mo (Kacey Ainsworth), and grandmother Mo (Laila Morse). Although it is presumed that Charlie is Zoe's father, it is later found out that Kat was raped by her uncle Harry Slater (Michael Elphick), making Kat her mother, and Charlie her uncle and grandfather. The revelation was nominated for 'Best Storyline' at the British Soap Awards as well as winning 'Best Single Episode' in 2002.

Another highly proclaimed storyline was Zoe's friendship with Kelly Taylor (Brooke Kinsella). The two were compared to two former popular characters, who also shared a close screen friendship, Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer) and Tiffany Mitchell (Martine McCutcheon). In 2003, Zoe and Kelly made headlines in the UK, in a New Year's Eve episode that was filmed on-location in Scotland. In the storyline, Zoe, Kelly and others, travel from London to Scotland, but their minibus crashes, leaving them stranded and injured on the freezing cold Scottish moors. While stranded, Kelly cares for an injured Zoe, they become over-emotional, and kiss. The episode featuring their kiss attracted 9.5 million viewers, and the precise moment that they kissed was watched by 44% of the available viewing audience.

One of Zoe's last major storylines was when she became romantically involved with Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman). Zoe claims she is pregnant, as she fears she is losing Dennis, but when Zoe starts worrying that Dennis will find out she is lying, Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) sleeps with Zoe, to get her pregnant, though Dennis sees them in bed together. Her final storyline was with Chrissie Watts (Tracy-Ann Oberman) and Sam Mitchell (Kim Medcalf) who plot to kill Den after hurting all three of them, in different ways. Zoe is thought to have killed Den, after the three confront him in the Queen Vic, but it is later found it that Chrissie killed him. Zoe leaves Walford for Ibiza after making amends with Kat.