Joan Walker appeared on Coronation Street in three roles:
- A policewoman who appeared in both January 1986 and March 1989
- Louise, a friend of Audrey Roberts, who appeared in July 2011
- Barbara Scully, a fundraiser for South Weatherfield Donkey Sanctuary in June 2022.
She graduated in 1981 from the University of Lancaster in Psychology and Maths (B.Sc. Hons) and taught maths for two years to earn enough money to attend drama school, gaining a Post Graduate Acting Diploma from the Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff in 1983 and worked in rep at the Dukes Theatre, Lancaster.
Her other credits include roles in Grange Hill, City Central, WIng and a Prayer, Kiss Me Kate, Birds of a Feather, Doctors and This England, along with the 2014 horror/thriller film Blood Moon and the shorts Thespian X, Awakening, November, Smog, Between Walls, The Feast and Destroyer of Worlds.
On stage, she appeared in productions of The Master and the Margarita, An Evening with Gary Linekar, The History Boys and The Provoked Wife.