2006–2010

Upon Chelsea's arrival, she is seduced by Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp), unaware he is dating her to make Jane Collins (Laurie Brett) jealous. However, when Denise uncovers the truth, Grant ends the relationship. Chelsea becomes friends with Deano Wicks (Matt Di Angelo) and initially works for Billy Mitchell (Perry Fenwick) at his video shop, but is sacked. She then finds employment at Tanya Branning's (Jo Joyner) salon, Booty, and falls for Sean Slater (Robert Kazinsky). However, Sean is promiscuous and pursues other women, including Tanya and Carly Wicks (Kellie Shirley), while Chelsea wants a serious relationship. Attempting to keep Sean away from Carly, Chelsea sets her up on a date with Warren Stamp (Will Mellor), who tries to assault Carly. Sean rescues her and animosity between the girls escalates, particularly when Sean dumps Chelsea for Carly. Carly's brother, Deano, is attracted to Chelsea and, using this to her advantage, she and Deano sabotage Carly and Sean's relationship. When Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker) is attacked, Chelsea and Deano frame Sean, stealing CCTV evidence that clears Sean, but Carly finds it and gives it to the police. Sean is released, and the police charge Chelsea and Deano with perverting the course of justice. Sean gets revenge by cutting Chelsea's hair while she sleeps and having Deano beaten by a gang of thugs. She and Deano are sentenced to six months imprisonment and released after three.

Chelsea befriends Shabnam Masood (Zahra Ahmadi) in hopes to get closer to Jalil Iqbal (Jan Uddin), but is devastated when he chooses Shabnam. Helped by her sister, Libby, Chelsea traces her father, Lucas Johnson (Don Gilet), who left her and Denise 20 years ago. She confronts him, revealing that she is his daughter but leaves before he responds. Lucas reappears and Chelsea is reluctant to see him but eventually agrees to go out for a birthday meal. However, she leaves on discovering that she has a half-brother, Jordan (Michael-Joel David Stuart). She buys drugs from Sean and steals money from work to buy more, but gets beaten up by a group of girls. Tanya fires her and Patrick catches her taking cocaine. He locks her in her room and calls Lucas to help. When he arrives, Chelsea has escaped through the bedroom window. Lucas finds her in R&R nightclub, high on cocaine, and takes her home. She falls in love with Theo Kelly (Rolan Bell), but upon dating, Chelsea feels excluded from Theo and his university friends. She later cheats on him with a footballer named Ellis Prince (Michael Obiora), who offers her drugs. A guilt-ridden Chelsea confesses her infidelity to Theo and despite his forgiving her, insists she cannot be with him and ends the relationship. She resumes her relationship with Ellis but Lucas finds the drugs Ellis gave her and confronts Chelsea. She runs away with Ellis, leaving a note for her family but returns on Libby's birthday.

Chelsea and Roxy Mitchell (Rita Simons) both pursue Dr. Al Jenkins (Adam Croasdell), becoming rivals as the doctor is dating them both secretly. Chelsea assists Jordan in his protest to get a tree planted in Trina's memory and manages to win Al. However, just before Chelsea and Al get together, Roxy turns up at his office dressed as a nurse, so Chelsea leaves, embarrassed. Despite this, when Roxy inherits The Queen Victoria public house, she employs Chelsea as a barmaid. Denise sets Chelsea up on a blind date with an associate of Lucas's called Matthew, but Chelsea does not enjoy the date and tells Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) she wants to leave. While she is in the toilet, Jack tells Matthew that Chelsea has a boyfriend so he leaves. Chelsea and Jack start dating and she returns to work at the salon, now named Roxy's. When Jack is shot and hospitalised, Chelsea declares her love for him and stays with him in hospital but Jack ends it as he is still in love with his ex-girlfriend and Roxy's sister, Ronnie Mitchell (Samantha Womack). Later, Chelsea and her colleague Amira Masood (Preeya Kalidas) worry that they are pregnant and take pregnancy tests. Amira's test is negative but Chelsea's test comes back positive. Chelsea decides to keep the baby but decides not to tell Jack, although she is scared of the prospect of becoming a single mother. She takes the test again and realises that she is not pregnant. She tells Amira that it was her test that was positive and promises to keep her secret when she leaves Walford after learning that her husband Syed (Marc Elliott) is gay.

When Owen's body is discovered buried under the Square, Denise is taken for questioning. Chelsea thinks that Denise may have killed Trina and Owen, as Lucas had told her that Denise was hiding Trina's bracelet in her bag. Chelsea tells Libby about the bracelet, and after Denise is released without charge, they see her leaving the Square alone and receive a text message from her saying "I'm sorry", unaware that Lucas killed Owen and confessed to Denise, took her to a canal and strangled her, sending the text message before he threw the phone in the canal. The police tell the family that Denise's car has been found by the canal and a body is pulled from the water along with Denise's mobile phone. Chelsea offers to go with Lucas to identify the body but she is unable to go in so he goes in alone and identifies it as Denise, leaving Chelsea devastated. Whilst celebrating Libby's birthday, Denise walks in, revealing that she is not dead but that Lucas has been keeping her prisoner, and that he killed Trina and Owen. Lucas enters and confirms that Denise is telling the truth and takes the family hostage, but when Jordan arrives, they escape and Lucas is arrested. Chelsea decides to move to Spain with Libby’s grandmother, Liz Turner (Kate Williams), as people in Walford will only ever think of her as the daughter of a murderer. Denise initially argues with Chelsea about this, but eventually agrees, encouraging Libby to go too for a holiday before returning to university. After leaving drinks in The Queen Victoria pub, Chelsea, Libby, and Liz leave Walford in the back of a taxi.

In November 2011, Amira states that Chelsea is living in Málaga, Spain. In May 2014, Denise goes to Spain with Libby to celebrate Chelsea's birthday. In August 2015, when Libby returns to Walford for her birthday, Chelsea calls her, urging her to tell Denise something, but Libby cannot go through with it. In December 2015, Libby reveals to Denise that Jordan (now played by Joivan Wade) briefly lived with her and Chelsea in Spain; however he caused an endless amount of trouble for them, so Chelsea kicked him out.

2020–present

In December 2020, Denise is surprised to see Chelsea (now played by Zaraah Abrahams) with her father Lucas, who has recently been released from prison. Chelsea later returns to Albert Square, where she reveals to Denise that she has been in communication with Lucas for months and is upset with Denise for not telling her about her son, Raymond Dawkins. After an argument with Denise, Chelsea leaves with Lucas. Patrick, in cooperation with Raymond's father Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden), meets Chelsea at The Queen Victoria public house to find out about Lucas' whereabouts. Later that day, Lucas is attacked in front of Chelsea after they leave a restaurant. Phil is blamed for Lucas's attack, but it is Chelsea's ex-boyfriend Caleb Malone (Ben Freeman) who is responsible for the attack. Chelsea is indebted to Caleb after fleecing him, and she plans on using Lucas to smuggle drugs for Caleb. Chelsea arranges a trip to Spain with Lucas, planning to use him to smuggle drugs, but ultimately fails. Denise confronts Lucas about upsetting Chelsea, and they both go missing. Chelsea finds blood in Lucas's flat and believes that Lucas has hurt Denise, but she later discovers that Caleb has taken Denise instead. Denise discovers Chelsea's plan and reluctantly agrees to help her trick Lucas into drug trafficking. They try to convince Lucas to follow Chelsea to Ibiza, but he later discovers their intentions. He vows to kill Caleb, but Chelsea threatens to abandon Lucas if he proceeds to do so, having not forgiven him for faking Denise's death, and she warns him that Caleb will kill her if he doesn’t help her. When Denise's boyfriend and Chelsea's ex-lover Jack discovers Chelsea's scheme, she attempts to seduce him to stop him from reporting her to the police. Lucas agrees to do the job but changes his mind. However he is arrested after being caught, and Chelsea later tips the police off when Caleb asks her to meet him, and he is arrested.

Chelsea begins a relationship with lawyer Gray Atkins (Toby-Alexander Smith) which is met with strong opposition by his former mother and father-in-law, Karen Taylor (Lorraine Stanley) and Mitch Baker (Roger Griffiths). During their relationship, Chelsea lives extravagantly off Gray's money and shows no interest in bonding with his children, Mia (Mahalia Malcolm) and Mackenzie (Isaac Lemonius). Their relationship comes to an end when Chelsea witnesses Gray's volatile behaviour towards her and others and refuses to be mistreated by him. Chelsea soon discovers that she is pregnant and plans to have an abortion, but is stopped by Gray's fling, Whitney Dean (Shona McGarty). Whitney accompanies her to an abortion clinic, but after having a scan and finding out that she is further along than expected, Chelsea decides to keep the baby. She decides to keep her pregnancy a secret from Gray and wants to raise the child alone, but Whitney urges Chelsea to tell Gray. Gray later finds out about Chelsea's pregnancy and initially agrees to have no involvement, but decides that he wants to raise the child together with her. Gray and Chelsea become engaged, and on the day of their wedding, Whitney tells Chelsea that Gray killed his wife Chantelle (Jessica Plummer) through domestic violence. Chelsea decides to stop the wedding but is manipulated by Gray, and they eventually marry. However, Chelsea later discovers Gray's abuse of Chantelle, when Whitney sends her screenshots of Chantelle's messages about her abuse that she had posted on an online forum shortly before her death. Chelsea then vows to leave Gray, and she steals money from Ruby Allen's (Louisa Lytton) nightclub Ruby’s and plans on fleeing to Ibiza, but is stopped in her tracks by Gray when he realises that she has stolen jewellery. When Gray confronts Chelsea, her waters break, and she is rushed to hospital, where she goes into premature labour, with Gray helping her. She gives birth to a son, who she calls Jordan Atkins, after her deceased half-brother. Chelsea decides to stay with Gray for temporary support and she orchestrates a plan with Whitney and Chantelle's former fling Kheerat Panesar (Jaz Deol) to incriminate Gray for his crimes.

Chelsea becomes horrified with Gray's control over her, and she decides to secretly register Jordan's birth certificate without Gray's knowledge but struggles to do so as her passport has expired. Kheerat helps her to obtain a passport, but she is later devastated to discover that Gray has already registered Jordan's birth. Chelsea develops Stockholm syndrome and turns on Whitney and Kheerat when they attempt to help her. When Gray is hospitalised after a fight with Kheerat, Chelsea regains her confidence and becomes disgusted with Gray. It is soon discovered that Gray had murdered Tina Carter (Luisa Bradshaw-White) and buried her corpse underneath The Argee Bharjee, and Gray takes Jordan from hospital and plans on fleeing Walford. Chelsea finds him and he tries to persuade her to leave with him. When she quizzes him about Chantelle's death, Gray confesses to killing her, although he reveals that it was an accident. Chelsea pretends to forgive him, however, unbeknownst to Gray, she has phoned the police and secretly recorded his confession. When Chelsea accidentally drops the phone, Gray realises that he has inadvertently confessed to the police, and proceeds to strangle Chelsea. He then attempts to attack her with a knife, but Chelsea punches him and tries to escape. Gray stops her and then flees when the police arrive; he is later arrested when Whitney and Mitch stop him from committing suicide by jumping off a railway bridge. Chelsea decides to put Jordan up for adoption to protect him from Gray's infamous reputation, but Denise persuades Chelsea to keep him. Whitney offers to move in with Chelsea to help her look after Jordan, but they are shocked to discover that Gray has fallen behind in paying the rent, and they are subsequently evicted.

Chelsea moves back in with Patrick and her aunt Kim Fox (Tameka Empson), and begins working for Sam Mitchell (Kim Medcalf) after she takes over Ruby's nightclub and renames it Peggy’s. Chelsea later moves back into Gray’s house with Whitney, and she also allows Mitch's nephews, Finlay (Ashley Byam) and Felix Baker (Matthew James Morrison), to live there alongside Whitney's boyfriend Zack Hudson (James Farrar). Chelsea becomes close to Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara), unaware that he is using her to make Denise jealous. Chelsea has a brief fling with Keanu Taylor (Danny Walters) much to the annoyance of his ex-girlfriend Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean). Chelsea ends it when she realises that Keanu still has feelings for Sharon. Chelsea becomes close to Ravi once again and they resume their fling, but he is only using her to intercept Jack's criminal investigation of him. When Ravi is arrested for possession of stolen goods, Chelsea stands by him and offers him a false alibi. Denise later reveals her previous affair with Ravi to Jack, who then exposes it to Chelsea. Chelsea also realises that Ravi has been using her and ends their relationship, though they later reconcile. When Whitney and Zack move into another flat, Chelsea invites Ravi and his son Davinder "Nugget" Gulati (Juhaim Rasul Choudhury) to move in. During their housewarming party, Denise reveals that Ravi had murdered his adoptive father Ranveer (Anil Goutam). Chelsea evicts Ravi and ends their relationship once again.

Departure

In April 2010, it was announced that Benjamin had chosen to leave the show to pursue other projects. Of her decision, she said "I have had an amazing time at EastEnders and this has been a very difficult decision for me to make but now seems like the right time to move on and leave Chelsea behind even through she's been such a fantastic character to play."^[3] Her final episode was broadcast on 5 August 2010.^[4]

Recast and return

It was announced in October 2020 that the character would be reintroduced with the role recast to actress Zaraah Abrahams. The announcement followed the news that Don Gilet would reprise his role as Chelsea's father, Lucas Johnson.^[5] Abrahams expressed her excitement at joining the cast, while Jon Sen, the show's executive producer, praised Abrahams' casting and commented, "When Chelsea was around, trouble was never far away and that is as true as ever when she returns to Walford later this year".^[5]