The role of General Hospital’s Maxie Jones will be temporarily taken over by Nicole Paggi (Undercover Bridesmaid, Frozen Impact), Deadline reports. Kirsten Storms (Johnny Tsunami, Dirty Soap) originally portrayed the character, but she will be out for a few days.
Paggi, who played the character of Sydney in the ABC comedy Hope & Faith before landing this temporary role in General Hospital, debuted today on the ABC daytime soap opera. Storms, instead, originally portrayed Isabella “Bella” Black on Days of Our Lives from 1999 to 2004, joining the cast of General Hospital in 2005.
For General Hospital, this is the second switch for a character like this. Storms’ Maxie was recast temporarily for the first time in 2011, with Jen Lilley (Snowkissed, Harvest Love), who took over the part until Storms was able to return in 2012. Storm also took a temporary leave from the show a couple of times, from 2016 to 2018, ranging from a couple of days to a several-month hiatus, with actress Molly Burnett (Queen of The South, Law & Order: Special Victim Unit) filling in very frequently.
In addition to that, Storms portrayed different roles in her career, as lead roles on the offshoot General Hospital: Night Shift, the Disney Channel TV movies Zenon, and her voice dubbing for the hit Disney Channel animated series Kim Possible.
For Paggi, instead, her curriculum as an actress shows recent roles in episodes of The Rookie: Feds and 9-1-1. To conclude, she previously starred in the sitcom One and One on the UPN network.
The show has taken home various awards in the past for its long-time run. For example, they won six awards from the 2023 Daytime Emmy Awards last week, including Outstanding Daytime Drama Series and Outstanding Directing Team for a Daytime Drama Series. A few actors from the series won important awards that day, including Eden McCoy for Outstanding Younger Performer in a Daytime Series for her role as Josslyn Jacks.
General Hospital airs every day of the week on the ABC network.