Tamara Braun Celebrates 25 Years in Soaps, From General Hospital to Y&R (Photos)

Braun burst onto the soap scene when she succeeded three-time Daytime Emmy winner Sarah Brown in the role of Carly Roberts Corinthos on GH. She shared with Soap Opera Digest in 2013, "The role of Carly and working on GH completely changed my life as a person and as an actress. I was ready to give up the business completely before I booked this role... I grew so much playing Carly as a young woman and in that character. It’s something that I will always treasure and hold dear. I think that Carly is going to go down in soap history as being a very strong, female character that people love or love to hate, and I feel really blessed to have been a part of her evolution.”

Among the many high-octane storylines Braun played out as Carly saw her husband, Sonny (Maurice Benard), accidentally shoot her in the head as she was giving birth to their son, Morgan. Mused Braun to Digest in 2023 about her leading man, "Maurice and I had chemistry from day one. I think you have chemistry or you don’t. We did.”

The actress wrapped her GH run as Carly in 2005 but returned to daytime three years later for a six-month run as DAYS's Ava Vitali, a mafia princess who shared a past with Steve Johnson during the years he had been presumed dead.

Ava went to extremes to disrupt Steve's (Stephen Nichols) marriage to Kayla (Mary Beth Evans). Braun described Evans and Nichols to Digest in 2018 as "wonderful human beings — professional, kind, warm and a ton of fun. I have nothing but the best things to say about them as individuals and as a force as their characters in daytime. Go ‘Stayla’! Love them.”

For the first and only time, the actress moved East to take on the role of architect Reese Williams on All My Children, who she played from 2008-09. She later told Digest of her time on the show, "I loved it. I loved living in New York City, playing Reese, [and] I made great friends and memories while working on AMC. I will always hold that time in my life as very special.”

Alongside Eden Riegel as Bianca, Braun made daytime TV history when their characters became the first same-sex couple on soaps to wed. Braun told Digest in 2018 that being part of that milestone, "was an honor and meant a great deal to me. I believe that all people should have the right to love and be married if it is what they desire. Love is love."

Braun notched her second Emmy nomination (the first was as Lead Actress in 2004 for GH) and first win for the role of Ava. In her speech, the actress thanked her mother for supporting her, getting choked up as she said, "Without you, I am nothing."

DAYS invited Braun to return in 2011 to play Taylor Walker, Nicole's sister, but the role was short-lived when the show axed multiple players during a behind-the-scenes regime change. She noted to Soaps in Depth that her Salem identities were vastly different: "Ava was having a psychotic break and was hopped up on the junk… she felt invincible and didn’t have much of a conscience, whereas Taylor has an enormous conscience that keeps getting in the way.”

In a surprise move, Braun made a return trip to Salem from 2015-16, once again playing Ava. "Her psyche is so different from other characters I have played in daytime," Braun told Digest of what she enjoyed about playing the part. "Her psychological wounds run much deeper and the effects of those wounds manifest in unique ways. There’s a lot to discover and rediscover."

Port Charles came calling for the actress again in 2017, but with Laura Wright firmly ensconced in the role of Carly, she signed on to play a different character, Kim Nero. Braun marveled to Digest at the time, "The [GH] fans, who are incredible, they have been saying for a long time, ‘Please come back, we don’t care what you play, just come back!’ That always surprises me and touches my heart and is so flattering and generous and kind and loving. I thought to myself, ‘Hmm, would this be a good thing and would this actually be giving the fans what they’ve been wanting?’"

When Kim arrived on the scene, she revealed to Drew Cain that they shared a teenage son, Oscar Nero (Garren Stitt). Kim was devastated when Oscar passed away in 2019 from brain cancer. Braun left GH later that same year, but took home her second Outstanding Supporting Actress Emmy in 2020 for her poignant performance.

In 2020, Braun returned to DAYS for the third time for another round as Ava, despite the character having been killed off back in 2016. She told Digest, "If I’m honest, the last time, I think she was just bad, all bad, and it made it difficult to redeem [her]. But I loved Ava incarnation No. 1, for sure — and the opportunity to play with her with them knowing my feelings and me stressing what I loved [about] her the first time around and hoping that they could implement some of that was a factor, as well, in my wanting to come back.”

For a time, Ava was romantically linked to Harris Michaels, played by Braun's one-time GH co-star Steve Burton (Jason), but the coupling was cut short and Burton returned to GH." I enjoyed working with him again and building this relationship between Ava and Harris," she told Digest in 2024. "But Steve needed to go. He’s back at GH where he wants to be and that’s important for him. I want people to be happy. Life is short.”

Braun's latest daytime comeback kicked off in the fall of 2025 when she was introduced as Sienna Bacall, an L.A.-based club owner who had entered into an affair with Noah Newman, now played by her former DAYS son, Lucas Adams (ex-Tripp). “He’s a lovely actor and an incredible gem of a human being,” Braun told TV Insider. “It’s wonderful to get to work with him again in a different capacity.”

Sienna's life was upended when she learned that her husband, who she knew as Mitch Bacall (Roger Howarth), was actually a dangerous criminal named Matt Clark. Braun told Digest, "Obviously, she knew that Mitch was a bad boy. But she did not know that he was a bad man, an evil man....Who wants to believe that they were so hoodwinked? She was so blindsided, and so blind to who this man was.”