List of Shortland Street characters introduced in 2019
Shortland Street is a New Zealand television soap opera. It was first broadcast on 25 May 1992 and currently airs on television network TVNZ 2. The following is a list of characters that appeared on the show in 2019 by order of first appearance. All characters are introduced by the show's executive producer Maxine Fleming. The 27th season of Shortland Street began airing on 14 January 2019.
Prince Kimiora
Prince Kimiora, played by Jay Kiriona made his first appearance on 15 March 2019.Prince first appears in the IV after Kylie kissed Drew and Drew ran off, they meet and they have a one-night stand. Prince then asks Kylie for all her dirty secrets and Kylie kicks him out of her house. He then applies to be a nurse and Kylie turns him down, Lincoln comes to his rescue and makes Kylie hire him, which is where Prince finds out that Lincoln is addicted to meth, and tries to help him. Prince falls in love with receptionist Angel and when Angel breaks up with Eddie, they become a couple.
Unfortunately, Angel takes her friend, Gracie, to Australia. Dawn has become all emotional that she is not pregnant because of the sperm donation from Ali's frozen sperm, and she kisses Prince. When Angel returns, they throw an engagement party, and Prince calls her a hoe, and then reveals he kissed Dawn. Angel breaks up with Prince.
Zara Rolleston
Zara Chakraborty, played by Nivi Summer, made her first screen appearance on 10 April 2019.Zara first appears as Chris' taxi driver to a DHB meeting, and when they discover Kate has been in a car crash, Zara rushes to her help. Chris hires her as a cardiologist, and Zara's family from India are revealed to be watching her. On 22 April, Zara's daughter Rani arrives and her husband Jav sends someone to capture Rani, which is foiled by Chris and the police. A month after Chris and Zara started dating, Chris hired a surgeon who Jav used to work with named Simon Ashton, Rani gets sick and Chris and Simon perform a surgery on Rani. However, Simon has an alcohol addiction and is hungover. After the surgery Chris and Zara break up when he reveals he hired Simon from Jav. After Simon was fired due to his alcoholism almost killed Rani, she managed a hostile takeover of Jav's pharmaceutical company by blackmailing him, thus becoming a board member of Shortland Street as a stakeholder and supply partner.
After breaking up with Chris, Zara and doctor Boyd Rolleston admit they have feelings for each other, but do not really have any chemistry and agree to stay friends. In July 2019 she dated nurse Nicole Miller for just under a month, however she broke up with her after her ex-husband Javs return, who was being threatening towards Zara. Jav leaves New Zealand when he buys Rani a car and she crashes it. Chris and Zara become a couple after Chris performed a life saving surgery on Rani after the car crash.
Zara and Chris get back together after a while, and in November, Rani kisses Louis King. Zara finds out and Rani tells her that she loves him, Rani becomes upset when she finds out that Louis does not have feelings for her.
In December, Zara tried to get Boyd's niece, Shereez Baker, to leave Tim Myers, but is met with his racist remarks. By the time Shereez finally leaves him, Tim sets a bomb in the hospital and a stolen ambulance, taking Zara and Boyd hostage. Boyd and Zara survive the explosion, leading the two to admit their love for each other and get together early in the year. Zara ends up proposing to Boyd after previously stating she didn't want to get married, and they have their wedding in August 2020. Zara decided to change her surname back to her maiden name Chakraborty, with Boyd also taking her name.
In January 2021, Boyd's ex, Eve Reston, returns, having a terminal illness and not long to live. Boyd eventually admits he is still in love with Eve despite still loving Zara, leaving Zara unsure of what to do. They stayed together after Eve passes away, and Zara promises to be a mother to Eve and Boyd's twins. Not long after, Zara gets involved in the fight against sex trafficking, working with Theo Chang and Michelle Beaufort to save women from being trafficked. Zara is very vocal with the campaign, speaking on the news and going very public. However, while speaking at an anti trafficking rally, Zara is shot by the people behind it. She survives, however this does not push her to give up. After her and Boyd decide to buy a vineyard and move down south, she receives a text from a woman asking for her help. She drives out to save the woman but ends up trapped with the men and is then abducted by them. In the next couple of days, the body of the woman she went to save is found, but Zara's body is not. She is presumed dead, but a body has not been found to prove it. On July 23 It was revealed three months later that Zara was killed soon after being kidnapped.
However, in the final moments of September 8 episode after the departure of her daughter this was revealed to be untrue, she is alive and pregnant. This coincides with Nivi's real-life pregnancy. Reuniting with Boyd, they moved down to Otago to inherit a winery. Word soon comes that Zara gives birth to a healthy baby girl, Raya. In 2024, Boyd returns to work at Shortland St as a locum and reveals that Zara has left him and taken Raya with her.
Cece King
Cecelia King, played by Nicole Whippy, made her first screen appearance on 25 April 2019.Cece first appears after Jean appears in hospital after a diagnosis with Alzheimer's disease. When Jean dies, her husband Ben sexually assaults Esther. Cece and Ben fight, causing Sophia to burn Esther's car. They make up, and she reveals to her son Louis, that he had a twin brother. Louis' birth mother, Vanessa shows up and Vanessa gets mad at Cece for driving her to kill herself and Louis' brother. She also gets hots for TK Samuels in October.
In November, Sophia has a boyfriend named Manaia, whose father is being investigated by Oranga Tamariki. When his father is taken in by the police for abusing Manaia. Manaia and his brother are left without anywhere to go, so TK organises for a pasifika community to surprise Manaia. Cece is happy and shares a kiss with TK.
Then in December, after Manaia cheated on Sophia and Cece revealed to Ben that she cheated with TK. Cece and Sophia go on a "man-free" bush walk with Dawn and Shareez, where they accidentally run into Dawn's ex, Jake. Jake gets shot by two hunters, Bronnie and Pete, who have had weed stolen by Jake. The hunters want to shoot Sophia, and the male one wants to rape her. Cece and Shareez rush Bronnie and Sophia sets Pete on fire. Cece, Dawn and Shareez lie to Detective Rashid Namal that Sophia burnt Pete by accident.
In February, Bronnie comes back for revenge on the four, and reveals to the four she has breast cancer. Cece, Dawn and Shareez organise for Bronnie to have an operation under a fake ID, and she goes. After an incident at school, Cece makes a MyLife account called "Kirk" to look out for Sophia, and in March, she reveals to Sophia that it was her running the account, and she confesses to TK and Ben that Pete's death wasn't an accident, and Ben wants Sophia to get justice for what she did. Ben heavily drinks after hearing the news, and turns on the stove to make dinner. Ben talks to Sophia when she gets home and they both dose of to sleep, and the house sets on fire. Sophia has no injuries but Ben gets smoke inhalation, and he dies later.
Cece can't stop suspecting Sophia caused the fire, and at Ben's funeral, Sophia lashes at Cece proclaiming that she thinks she killed Ben. They make up and Sophia turns herself in over the death of Pete. Sophia is sentenced to counselling in her court trial.
Cece married TK in September 2022. Following a shooting at the hospital, TK is left severely injured and required long term rehabilitation. Cece and TK leave Shortland Street in June 2023 to undertake the rehab closer to TK’s family in the country. Cece makes a few cameo appearances in December to be a bridesmaid for Madonna and attend Chris Warner’s New Years Eve boat party.
Ben King
Ben King, played by Jamie Irvine, made his first screen appearance on 25 April 2019. Ben arrived with wife Cece, son Louis and daughter Sophia when it became apparent his mother Jean was entering a stage of severe Alzheimer's. Jean ended her own life and a traumatised Ben began heavily drinking. After getting drunk and ending up in bed with Esther Samuels, Esther withdrew her consent but was raped by Ben. After a tumultuous period of losing his friends and nearly his family, Esther did not press charges. Ben and Cece soon had to reveal that Louis was a twin, with his brother having been murdered by his biological mother Vanessa. Vanessa returned and turned Louis against his family, though he soon forgave them but was seriously injured whilst surfing and confined to a wheel chair.Later in the year Ben was concerned when Sophia fell for co-worker Kate's son Blue Nathan. After a DNA test it was revealed Blue was in fact Ben's son after a one-night stand in the nineties. Ben became paranoid when he realised Cece shared a kiss with his boss TK Samuels and was devastated when his family was held hostage and Sophia killed a man in apparent self defence. Two months later Cece revealed it was not self defence and Sophia had in fact murdered the man. Struggling with the news, Ben began to drink heavily. After a heart-to-heart with Sophia, Ben drunkenly fell asleep with the oven on and set the house alight. Sophia managed to get him out of the house but he developed hypoxia due to smoke inhalation. He died after going into ventricular fibrilation.
Louis King
Louis King, played by Henry Rolleston, made his first screen appearance on 25 April 2019.Louis first appears when his family come to Ferndale after his grandmother, Jean is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Louis looks after his sister, Sophia after she sets a retirement village on fire and also looks after Zara's daughter, Rani, when she starts Ferndale High, which causes Rani to develop a crush on Louis. Louis starts dating Shereez, which makes Rani jealous and after the death of a 5 year old named Tommy, his father confesses that he had a twin named Tommy. His birth mother Vanessa shows up and blames Cece for her attempted suicide and the death of Louis' twin brother. Thanks to Vanessa, Louis goes to Drew's and stays there for a while. Shereez become pregnant with his baby, and he breaks up with Shereez as he wants to be with a girl at his school.
In December, he saved Shereez from Tim Myers' final abuse by temporarily putting him under arrest, while trying to foil River from a misogynistic internet group chat and initiating a second bomb planted in the hospital.
He recovered in February, but was unable to get his old job as a barista, as he tried to earn money to try becoming a pro surfer again. Instead, he was persuaded to work as an orderly. Louis was never able to get over the grief of Ben's death in March 2020. On July 10, 2020, he returned to IV Café as a barista after Petra, Michelle Beaufort's daughter, in fixing her coffee orders when she was trialled as a sole-charge café manager. He has a thing with Shereez for a while and saves her from her creepy flatmate Colin, and then she leaves for the Chatham Islands. He and Petra then have a relationship, and when Petra tells him she is leaving for Queenstown, he wants to go with her but is held back because he still cares about Shereez.
In 2021, Louis' friend Theodora Chang is having problems getting over Nicole's wife, Maeve, so he decides to have sex with her, and they start a relationship. Louis goes to Drew's to smoke weed, but when Drew's adopted son Marley's social worker comes around, Drew asks Louis to take the marijuana with him, and he starts growing a batch in his room. This becomes a problem when Louis makes weed fudge, and TK accidentally eats some when Louis tells him specifically not to. TK gets mad and the two have a big fight, However they make up after TK and Cece go away for a couple of weeks. Louis begins to have more problems with his family after they all forget the anniversary of Ben's death. However, this is also patched up quickly too. Louis then gets involved in drug dealing business with the gang the iron dogs and his mother pays the price, Cece King later on gets bet up by the gang members.