Joanne Guest, known as Jo Guest, was born on February 22, 1972, in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England, and grew up on Poplar Drive in Glapwell. Of English descent, she attended the former Heath School (1963-1991) and studied Hotel Management at Chesterfield College while working as a magician’s assistant and taking a catering course. At the height of her popularity in the 90s there was a long-standing rumor that Guest was the pretty magician's assistant who was working with Tommy Cooper when he died on stage during a televised magic show in 1984 of a massive heart attack. But as the internet became more prevalent in the early 2000s, and older TV shows were getting uploaded on platforms like YouTube, it was clear that Guest was not the assistant. Born in 1972, she also would have been only 12 years old in 1984.
She began modeling after responding to a local advertisement. When she first went into the agency with her medium-length dark brown hair, she was told to wait in the lobby, and they might get to her. She left after 20 minutes. She went home and dyed her hair blonde. She returned the next day and was immediately ushered into meeting the owner and was shooting that day with their photographer, who would send her pics to every lad's mag in Britain. Known professionally as Jo Guest, with aliases like Hollie Dahlberg and Joanne Guest in some publications, she appeared as a Page 3 girl in The Sun (1993-1998) and featured in British “top shelf” magazines like Mayfair, Men Only, Men’s World, Escort, Razzle, and Whitehouse. Her Loaded cover was projected onto the Houses of Parliament in May 1998, and she starred in the Playboy video Shagalicious British Babes.
