Gray Atkins

Gray Atkins is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Toby-Alexander Smith. He was introduced by executive producer Kate Oates in episode 5893, broadcast on 29 March 2019, as the patriarch of the Atkins family, which included Gray, his wife Chantelle Atkins (Jessica Plummer), and children Mia (Mahalia Malcolm) and Mackenzie Atkins (Isaac Lemonius). Before his introduction and during the beginning of his time on the show, Gray was depicted as a charming and confident businessman, as well as a loving husband and committed father, before Gray and Chantelle became the focus of a storyline about domestic abuse. The show worked with charities such as Refuge and Women's Aid to depict the storyline in an accurate and sensitive manner. In September 2020, EastEnders announced that the storyline would end with Gray killing Chantelle to reflect, which included a sharp increase in spousal murders.

Following the conclusion of his story with Chantelle, Gray served as the show's main antagonist in 2020 and 2021. He murdered Tina Carter (Luisa Bradshaw-White) and Kush Kazemi (Davood Ghadami) before entering a second marriage to Chelsea Fox (Zaraah Abrahams), with the two having a son together, Jordan Atkins. The relationship began to sour as Gray became physically abusive towards Chelsea shortly before the show announced that Smith was being written out of the show in February 2022 for storyline purposes. Smith admitted that he enjoyed the challenge that came with playing a character as deceitful as Gray. In episode 6649, broadcast 10 March 2022, Gray's departure was depicted as his arrest after his murders were finally uncovered, a downfall Smith considered "a long time coming".