Lynne McGranger
Lynne McGranger (born 29 January 1953)[1] has played Irene Roberts since 1993. She took over the role from Jacqy Phillips, who had played the character previously from 1991 to 1992. She is now the longest serving female cast member on Home and Away. Only Ray Meagher who has been with Home and Away since 1988 has been there longer.
Pre H&A[]
Lynne originally trained as a primary school teacher, before becoming an actress. She started out in theatre, with roles in Bye Bye Birdie and West Side Story. After small parts in TV shows such as The Flying Doctors and Sky Trackers, she landed the role of Irene Roberts.
H&A[]
Originally, Irene Roberts was only supposed to be a guest role. The character proved to be popular, and so, Lynne was promoted to the main cast of Home and Away later in 1993.
In 2021, Lynne published her first book[2]. An autobiography called Acting Up: Me, Myself and Irene.
In 2022 it was revealed by script writer Coral Drouyn on Talking Prisoner [1] [2] that the character of Irene was originally going to be written out. Coral revealed that the script producer at the time was about to fire Lynne due to Irene 'not fitting into the story'. Coral sat down with Lynne and the two reworked Irene's entire story.
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