List of original Shortland Street characters

Envisioned by the show's creator Caterina De Nave alongside Jason Daniel and Ken Catran, amongst others, the characters were meant to demonstrate workers in a busy domestic city, working in a private medical clinic.

As part of creating the soap that was to become Shortland Street, Caterina De Nave had numerous goals she wished to achieve.

At the time in New Zealand, there was only one Pacific Islander working as a paramedic, and the Samoan character of Sam Aleni was placed as an experienced and hard-working ambulance worker.

[1] De Nave also noticed that the role of women in soap operas often saw them portrayed as much weaker and more vulnerable than their male equivalents and decided to write several female characters as strong and powerful matriarchs.

[1] The show's key demographic was female teenagers and therefore De Nave decided to incorporate several young teen characters into the programme.

[3] To entice young females, two teenage "heart throbs" were created, Stuart Neilson and Nick Harrison.

[1] Humour was also a large part in deciding the cast, with several characters having comedic elements to their stories, whilst others such as Marj and later Nick, were primarily comic relief.

[8] Later in the year, both Stephanie Wilkin (Meredith Fleming) and Lisa Crittenden (Carrie Burton) resigned,[9] with the characters leaving in July and November respectively.

Throughout his time on the soap, Martin Henderson (Stuart Neilson) had begun to tire of his character and his story lines and in late 1994 he left the show to pursue a film career.

Temuera Morrison (Hone Ropata) had also tired of the role and what he considered, "hands-in-pocket acting" and he quit, departing in mid 1995.

"[17] Galvin departed alongside his onscreen brother Craig Parker (Guy Warner) in an episode written by Steven Zanoski in May 1996.

[24] Harper quit her role several months later, saying she was pleased with the amount of spare time she had secured, stating, "The week I finished I was on my bike cycling away and I thought, 'Oh, I have no lines to learn, how wonderful'.

Adrian Keeling (Tom Neilson) had quit the soap after just one year, but his exit storyline was left hugely ambiguous and he was struggling with the public constantly confronting him.

[31] Danielle Cormack (Alison Raynor) had also departed after her initial one-year contract but returned to the show within 12 months in a several week stint.

In 2000, the soap underwent a major rejuvenation and as part of the creativity juggle, Michael Galvin (Chris Warner) was offered the chance to return after 4 years.