The soap world was abuzz after Young and Restless announced this week that not one but two award-winning daytime vets — Tamara Braun and Roger Howarth — were joining the cast of the CBS soap. Among those voicing excitement over the new additions to the show was Y&R star Michelle Stafford (Phyllis), who had previously worked with both Braun and Howarth during her 2014-19 stint as Nina Reeves on ABC sudser General Hospital.
Together Again
“I could not be happier to be posting this!” Stafford enthused in an Instagram post featuring snaps of her with both actors from events and an episodic of her and Howarth from a scene on GH. “Not only because these two are extra extraordinary actors, but because they are my friends! Our show just got a little more bad ass,” she continued. She then teased, “Just so you know, more surprises to come,” and added the hashtag “#GETREADY.”
Following her 2001-05 run as Carly Corinthos, Braun returned to GH to play Kim Nero from 2017-19, and while the characters of Kim and Nina didn’t really have much in the way of storyline together, the actresses still got to work at the same studio together. It was also during her run as Kim that Braun took home the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress.
Odd Couple: Howarth and Stafford worked together on GH as Franco and Nina, but will they be paired up on Y&R as well?Howard Wise/jpistudios.com
Howarth earned his Daytime Emmy back in 1994 for his portrayal of Todd Manning on One Life to Live, and while he brought that character over to GH in 2012 following OLTL’s cancellation, he had already moved on to playing Franco Baldwin by the time Stafford arrived in Port Charles as Nina. Fans will recall Franco getting mixed up with Nina’s scheme to steal Ava’s 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦 at 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 and raise the 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦 girl together in Canada, getting committed to Shadybrook together, and more during the pair’s offbeat love story.
Stafford told Soap Opera Digest in 2023 that the Franco/Nina pairing was one of her all-time favorites. “I’ll be honest — that storyline is definitely in the top two storylines that I’ve done in daytime,” she declared. “I know it was riddled with traps. I know that we were away from the rest of the canvas. I know that, but to me a love story told in a psych ward was really cool and interesting. I had never seen anything like that on daytime. I loved working with Roger. He is very inventive and complex, and I like that. He would throw curveballs, and I feel like I caught them, and I threw them back. Playing that storyline was really fun. I had a good time doing that.”
By the time Franco was 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed off in 2021 and Howarth began playing Dr. Austin Gatlin-Holt, Stafford had already returned to Y&R.
On his own Instagram, Howarth celebrated the casting news by sharing a photo of himself doing the sign language for “Y” with one hand and “R” with the other. “Excited and appreciative,” he captioned the image. “I’m a lucky guy…”
Braun is playing the mystery role of Sienna Bacall, and Y&R is being very hush-hush about who Howarth will be playing. So fans will just have to wait and see if either of these characters finds themselves mixed up in Phyllis’s drama in Genoa City.
