After being given zero percent chance of survival by fetal surgeons, Joelle was born in Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, England, and saved by the Special Care Baby Unit following an extremely premature birth at 26 weeks. She is the sole survivor of identical twins, one of three sisters and is Austrian as well as English, having lived the majority of her life in London. 

Joelle grew up with a passion for storytelling from a young age, writing poems, songs and creating videos. Her love for creativity snowballed after she became completely bald at the age of 8, due to alopecia universalis. Finding herself isolated in school, Joelle embraced the performing arts to experience freedom from judgement, which ultimately became her salvation. 

During her early teens, Joelle won several film festival awards in America, a pivotal point in her life which led to her honing her skills, vocal training in Atlanta, Georgia with Peggy Still Johnson and further vocal and stage training with former director of the London Community Gospel Choir, Daniel Thomas. At 15, Joelle became an ambassador for the UK charity Alopecia UK, following her early years campaigning for bullying awareness with the media and international press covering her story.  

Joelle went on to gain experience in journalism, creating and hosting video interviews for national and independent media outlets, and became a trained puppeteer while studying film and TV in higher education. 

Following graduation, Joelle directed and performed in her first short film "Cover Up" (2019), featuring original sound recordings composed by multi-Grammy-winning Oscar-nominated songwriter Diane Warren. Joelle went on to make her feature film debut in Denis Villeneuve’s "Dune" (2021). She is known for her performance in Paul Feig’s Netflix fairy tale fantasy film "The School for Good and Evil" (2022), her role as Vipsania in MGM+ and Sky’s second season of historical drama series "Domina" (2023) and more recently for her role as Joiya Byir in season two and three of Amazon Prime’s fantasy series "The Wheel of Time" (2023-2025). 

Joelle’s performance style has been described as natural, genuine and unique.

At the age of 15, Joelle was appointed as an Ambassador for the charity Alopecia UK. As part of her ambassadorial role, she meets children, parents, family members, and friends at support groups and events, giving advice and sharing insights from her journey. She has also spoken with and given talks about bullying prevention with thousands of children in the US.

In an interview with Alopecia UK Joelle reflects on one of the highlights of her time with the charity, "I have a memory from an AUK children’s support group that still touches my heart whenever I think about it. The children came into the room wearing hats, headscarves and wigs. It didn’t take long before everyone stopped paying attention to what they were wearing and then, just like that, the children took off their head coverings. Everyone could be themselves without having to worry about being seen or treated differently; they could just be children. It's moments like these that remind me of the positive impact Alopecia UK has had on so many people and I feel truly blessed to be involved with the charity."