Since her stay in Walford, the actress has advanced significantly.
From January through April of 2008, Mia McKenna-Bruce portrayed Penny Branning on EastEnders. Penny had plenty of plots even if her stay on the show was brief. Penny Branning, a child of Jack and Selina Branning, is paralysed from the waist down. She was struck by a car in what she and the viewers at first took to be retaliation against a criminal Jack had imprisoned while serving as a police officer.
Later, it came to light that Jack was engaged in illegal activity and was informing on a drug lord in return for cash. One of his associates drove Selina and Penny over after failing to stop the drug lord’s arrest, leaving Penny paralysed. The relationships her father Jack had dominated Penny’s story on the show. He rekindled his connection with his ex-wife Selina while simultaneously being associated with Ronnie Mitchell, who Penny did not like.
Selina made the decision to relocate to France and bring Penny with her after the two had a birthday kiss. Penny finally convinced her mother to let her move out with her. Since then, she has made several appearances in the Square, notably when she called Jack to inform him that she wouldn’t be attending his wedding to Ronnie and more recently, when Max Branning was arguing with Jack. Since leaving Walford, Mia, an actor for Penny, has been quite busy.
The 25-year-old actress, who had previously acted in Holby City and made an appearance in Billy Elliot on the West End, played Penny when she was just 10 years old. Mia had appearances on The Bill and Doctors after EastEnders. She made her cinematic debut in 2009 with The Fourth Kind, and two years later, in 2010, she was given the part of Tee Taylor in Tracy Beaker Returns. In the spin-off television series The Dumping Ground, she frequently played the part again.
Most recently, Mia was chosen to play Mary Elliot in the upcoming Persuasion Netflix movie, which is based on the same-named Jane Austen novel. On July 15, it will be made available for streaming, and Mia doesn’t resemble Penny Branning at all in the movie.
Mary is one of the main characters in the book. She is married to Charles Musgrove and is shown throughout the narrative attempting to raise her social standing by arranging for her sister to wed Frederick Wentworth so that she might acquire the title of Lady.
Even though The Independent only rated the movie one star and Rotten Tomatoes now rates it at 34%, The Guardian praised Mia’s portrayal of Mary as “scene-stealingly played.”
