Joe arrived as a young fresher in Hollyoaks studying fashion and got himself in a bit of a bother with roommate Robbie Flynn, after the pair had a falling out over room sharing. Joe certainly had his share of attention and was fleetingly labelled as gay. This brought a few admirers like Nick O'Connor, after he too thought Joe was gay. But to prove he was not gay, Joe began dating Jodie Nash after the pair met on a dating spree contest. However it wasn't too last for too long as Joe moved on to his next relationship, this time with Sophie Burton. The pair seemed like love's young dream couple, but Joe felt the strain after he thought Sophie became too pushy in the relationship after introducing Joe to her mother Liz Burton. Soon after, Sophie ended the relationship with Joe after learning that he was going to dump her. Joe soon built up a good friendship relations with Dannii Carbone, Russ Owen and Jeremy Peterson. He also revealed that he had a rocky relationship with his alcoholic father, a police officer, who was abusive towards Joe's mother. He was also smitten with ice-queen Louise Summers, despite the fact she has shown no interest in him. Despite being a cheeky chap, Joe's confidence was to take a huge blow after he was beaten up by a bunch of teenage school girls. With the support of Russ and Danni, Joe was able to recover from his trauma. Joe began to concentrate on his fashion degree, however things got from bad to worse for Joe. He managed to run up in massive debts after his dealing for supplying jackets collapsed. Joe became desperate and took out a credit card in best mate Jeremy's name. Jez was oblivious to this and also bought him a laptop after Joe claimed his was stolen. Although he and Dannii were forced to leave the student flat they shared with Zara Morgan and Jez to make room for Jessica Harris and Olivia Johnson, it appeared that he moved back into the flat after Zara Mark Jury moved out. Meanwhile, Joe's debt deepened and soon it resulted in loan sharks chasing Joe, which led to Joe faking his own death in order to get he's loan sharks off his back. The whole debt saga cost Joe dearly as he was unable to take his exams as the college records had him down as "deceased" and had to resit his final year. Before college restarted in September 2006 he found out he, Olivia, and Jessica had to move out to make room for new students. Joe recognised the name of one of the students as Zoe Carpenter, a girl he used to date in high school, but he dumped her because she was fat but realised that it was his big mistake and tried to convince her to take him back. Joe tried to stay in the flat with Jessica and Olivia by telling the new students that they were their live-in student mentors, but the students saw through their plans. Joe tried to bribe the students with drinks but with no success. Joe made it up to Zoe by telling her he regretted dumping her in high school and then they went to The Dog in The Pond together with Kris Fisher, Jessica, and Olivia. That night escaped rapist Sam Owen burst into the pub and set it on fire. Joe had theorised that the only safe way out would be through the basement. After successfully getting Kris and Zoe out, he went back for Olivia, who had been pinned under a beam just behind the bar. Before Joe left he told Zoe that he already lost her once, and he wasn't going to again. Upon finding Olivia, Joe freed her, but the bottles of alcohol behind the bar exploded, killing both of them. Zoe tried to ring Joe's phone and heard his ring tone; she and Kris followed it, with Kris remarking that "People like Joe are born lucky". Seconds later, they found it coming from a group of body bags. Joe died a hero, trying to save Olivia.
