The following are characters who first appeared, or returned, in the BBC soap opera EastEnders during 2010 listed by order of first appearance. Executive producer Diederick Santer left EastEnders on 26 February 2010, handing over to Bryan Kirkwood, who fully took control from 1 March 2010. Santer introduced five new main characters in January, three from the online spin-off EastEnders: E20 (Zsa Zsa Carter, Leon Small and Fatboy) as well as two members of the long-established Mitchell family, Glenda Mitchell and her son Danny. February saw the show's first birth of 2010, with , the fourth child of the established Zainab Masood and Masood Ahmed. The same month, , the mother of Dotty Cotton appeared. The character of was introduced in April, and the fourth main character from EastEnders: E20, Mercy Olubunmi, joined EastEnders in May. Kirkwood's first major casting was Zöe Lucker in the role of Vanessa Gold and later cast her daughter Jodie and husband , as well as Mercy's grandmother , all of whom appeared in June. June also saw the show's second birth of the year, that of , the daughter of Stacey Branning and Ryan Malloy. In September, became the third birth of the year, born to Sam Mitchell and Jack Branning. Three characters arrived in October: , Tanya Branning's fiancé; Michael Moon, Alfie Moon's cousin; and , an old friend of Billy Mitchell. In November, Kirkwood introduced the ex-husband of Zainab Masood, . Two more babies were born in December, and , which triggered a long-running storyline for Ronnie Mitchell and Kat Moon.