FORMER EastEnders star Jonny Labey looks unrecognisable six years after leaving the soap.
The actor – who played Paul Coker on the BBC soap after he joined the cast in 2015 – looks very different to his young character and fans are still swooning over the hunky star.
Jonny, 29, regularly shares snaps of his new acting roles, trips to exotic holiday destinations and an array of pictures that have left followers hot under the collar.
Jonny’s character fell in love with Ben Mitchell but was killed off in a homophobic attack a year later.
Jonny went on to be a judge on CBBC’s biggest show Taking The Next Step alongside Marlon Swoosh and Kimberly Wyatt.
Jonny has appeared in stage shows including In the Heights (by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda), Strictly Ballroom: The Musical (by Moulin Rouge’s Baz Luhrmann) and White Christmas.
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He’s been dancing since the age of five and studied at the Doreen Bird College of Performance in London, graduating in 2014.
He became the first winning contestant on ITV’s Dance Dance Dance alongside his then-girlfriend Chrissy Brooke in 2017.
Jonny was previously engaged to Chrissy Brooke – but the pair ended up going their separate ways.
The actor has since swapped his iconic hair for a shorter style, in one photo Jonny gave his best Danny Zuko impression wearing a leather jacket and white t-shirt as he smouldered at the camera.
One gushed: “Wow… I got chiiiilllls.”
Another penned: “Gorgeous, looking handsome as always Jonny.”
In another image, he posed topless with black swim-shorts on a beach in Thailand.
Fans raced to brand him “sexy” and “truly beautiful”.
Paul Coker was a hairdresser who lived in the square with grandparents Les and Pam, who owned the funeral director Coker and Sons.
He soon developed a relationship with mechanic and businessman Ben Mitchell.
But disaster struck as their relationship was cut short after Paul’s death, leaving Ben heartbroken.
His grandparents Pam and Les, left the village later that year.
He took part in The X-Factor: Celebrity last year and battled in the under 31s category.
He was mentored by Louis Walsh and was given a safe seat in week 1 along with the star of The Chase Jenny Ryan and Rugby Union trio Try Star.
But Jonny’s time on the show soon came to an end as he was eliminated in week 2 via deadlock, after he found himself in the bottom 2 alongside journalist Martin Bashir.
Jonny is the latest in a long line of former soap stars that have tried to break Hollywood.
There have been some big success stories in recent years as Ben Hardy, who played Peter Beale, made his film debut as Archangel in the superhero film X-Men: Apocalypse and also featured in box office hit Bohemian Rhapsody.
Meanwhile, Nathalie Emmanuel, who starred Hollyoaks for four years, went on to star in Game of Thrones and had roles in the mega Fast and Furious franchise and The Maze Runner.
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And ex-Hollyoaks soapstars Rachel Shenton and Chris Overton picked up the Oscar for best live action short film with The Silent Child in 2017.
Rachel wrote the screenplay and starred in the short, while her fiancé Chris was the director.
