Joe Wallace, played by Jason Rush, is a young, gay chef who is HIV-positive. He arrives in Walford in July 1991 looking for labouring work at the Dagmar renovation. He befriends Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) when he helps him move some freezers, and Ian gets Joe some work on the site and a room at the local B&B. Joe recognises Mark Fowler (Todd Carty) from the Terrence Higgins Trust, but Mark initially denies that it was him. Ian later gives Joe a job at his restaurant, The Meal Machine. Joe encourages Mark to tell his parents that he is HIV-positive. When Ian discovers that Joe has HIV, he sacks him and disinfects his whole kitchen. Joe then leaves Walford to live with his parents in Cowley and is the last person to see Eddie Royle (Michael Melia) alive before Eddie is murdered in September that year by Nick Cotton.