Emmerdale star has surprising side job that keeps him 'grounded'

Emmerdale star Joe-Warren Plant has a surprising side job that fans may not be aware of. Joe-Warren, 23, has played the role of Jacob Gallagher on the ITV soap since 2010, but has another job on the side which keeps him "grounded", reveals his former co-star Roxy Shahidi. Roxy, 42, bowed out of the soap after 17 years of playing Leyla Harding, with her character tragically killed off as a result of the limo crash in February. Despite waving goodbye to Emmerdale, Roxy and Matthew Wolfenden have returned for the second series of their podcast, Celebrity Side Hustles. The duo launched the podcast last year, inviting famous guests on to share more about their side projects.

They were joined by Joe-Warren this time around, who reveals all about his surprising side hustle. Despite starring on one of the biggest soaps in the UK, Joe-Warren spends his time working as a waiter when he’s not filming at Emmerdale. He has been getting stuck in to his "weekend job" for years, working his way up from potwash to waiter. Matthew, 44, explained: "It’s true. He waits tables in a restaurant in Blackpool, he still does it now. I think with Joe, because he grew up on Emmerdale, you miss out on things like getting a bar job. So one day he just went, ‘oh, I'm. I'm gonna get a job in a restaurant’."

Matthew, who stepped down from the role of David Metcalfe in 2023, continued: "I think he started off washing dishes. He’s kept himself grounded, got a normal job on a weekend and yeah, that's just really admirable and beautiful.

Heaping praise on his former co-star, Matthew added: "He's just such a gorgeous young man - he’s never got starry about it. I think if, if my kids go down that route and can be like Joe Warren, then I'd be very proud."

Joe is just one of the familiar faces joining Matt and Roxy as they sit down for series two. Over the next few weeks they’ll be joined by Emmerdale's Lisa Riley and former Hollyoaks star Adam Rickett, who are set to spill about the off-screen projects people might not be aware of.

Matthew explained how he was "blown away" after discovering details of what some of their co-stars get up to away from the soap.

"It’s been really interesting to speak to people about, for instance, Jessie Elland, who had written a novel which nobody really knew about," he said.

"Then on the flip side, talking to Danny Miller, whose side hustle is Once Upon a Smile, which he set up with his friend and fellow actor, Daniel Jillings, years and years ago.

"And over the years, he's raised millions and we didn't realise this. He's raised millions of pounds for bereaved children and families. I mean, the work that he's done, it just really blew me away."

Matthew and Roxy struck up a close friendship on Emmerdale and have worked on other projects besides the soap and Side Hustles, including writing for dramas like Holby City and Doctors.

Explaining how Side Hustles came about, Matthew said: "Roxy will probably tell you a slightly different story, but the way that I remember is me and Roxy were filming together on location in this house, and it was just me and her all day.

“There’s a lot of downtime when they’re setting lights up and resetting cameras. We were filming a lot together in Emmerdale because our characters were kind of best buddies and we were spending a lot of time together because we were writing together outside of Emmerdale."

This led the duo to speculate what else they could, and they ultimately landed on a podcast.

He continued: "So we sat there and brainstormed. We just couldn't come up with something that we could do that was different to anything that we've seen before.

“And then we started talking about the fact that we've always got these side hustles and I was like, ‘well, that's perfect - side hustles’.

“Why don't we speak to people off the TV that have these really interesting side hustles, things people don't know about or might want to know more about."