List of Shortland Street characters introduced in 2016
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 2016 by order of first appearance. All characters are introduced by the show's executive producer Maxine Fleming. The 25th season of Shortland Street began airing on 19 January 2016 and concluded on 19 December 2016, and its 25th anniversary was in May 2017.
Blue Nathan
Bluebell "Blue" Nathan, played by Tash Keddy, made his first appearance on 10 March 2016. Keddy is the first transgender actor to play a transgender character on the show. Shortland Street producer Maxine Fleming said there were around 12 actors auditioning for the part. Keddy auditioned with no acting experience and had never seen Shortland Street. Keddy was initially contracted for 12 months. Fleming commented, "We talked to Tash extensively to ensure he was up to the challenge of this and was robust enough to deal with the attention it was going to bring, and also had the right support in his life. We were convinced he was the right person for the role." The show's production company hired Cole Meyers, a consultant from the transgender community, to help out with Blue's introduction. Meyers thought the casting was "a big deal" and hoped the character would receive a positive reaction from viewers. On 1 April 2018, it was reported by Ophelia Buckleton from Stuff.co.nz that Keddy would be leaving his role as Blue after 2 years on the show. Keddy felt that the role had "hugely" changed the transgender community. He also revealed that his backstory is largely autobiographic as Tash is a real-life fine arts student.Blue lurks around the hospital and later steals food from the cafeteria. Jack Hannah witness this and starts chasing him down. He eventually catches Blue and talks him into giving the food back. He then pulls off Blue's hood and is confused about his gender. Kate Nathan, Blue's mother, sees this and punches Jack and tells him not to touch Blue ever again. Blue starts at Ferndale High and steals an iPad off of another student. Jack then arrives and gets it off Blue and returns it to the owner. Jack then starts talking to Blue and comforts him. Jack mentions to Blue that he is "different" too telling him that he is gay. After struggling to persuade his mum to start transitioning, he gets a job at the I.V. to pay for it himself. Kate later comes around to the idea and supports him. Blue is attracted to Lottie, of whom Harry Warner likes too. Blue and Lottie later share a kiss, much to the disappointment of Harry. Blue moves into the Hannah's after Kate and Mo Hannah start a relationship. He then meets Harper Whitley's niece Ash Whitley and after conflict between the pair at first, they start a relationship. Blue is very distraught after Ash's death and starts self harming. Blue would finally stop after an accident involving his mother and a ladder. After helping stepbrother and close friend Jack through the death of his boyfriend Dion, Blue departed Ferndale to live with his new girlfriend in a studio apartment after enrolling in university.
On 25 June 2018 he returned during the semester break to celebrate Kate's birthday. However, on the night where he and Mo tried to surprise Kate, Kate was abducted by the serial rapist who raped Claire, and apparently Dawn's lesbian friend last year.
In 2019, after Mo died, he finally decided to do the double mastectomy as the next stage to physically transition into a man. Kate even offered to help financially. However, on 14 February, he had second thoughts, and Kylie had to block his body to force Drew to stop the surgery, after Blue was just sedated, thus was in no fit state to retract. While Kylie initially faced backlash over the move, when Blue fully explained that he gained clarity from babysitting Billie, Drew and Harper's intersex child, he no longer feel the surgery to be a necessity.
He returns in October and Sophia King falls for him. While the two are hanging at home, Ben King rushes in and Sophia admits she likes Blue but Ben says that she can't like him like that because he has just found out from Kate that Blue is his son.
Kate Hannah
Kate Hannah played by Laurel Devenie, made her first appearance on 10 March 2016.Kate arrives applying for a job as a nurse at Shortland Street Hospital. Nicole Kruse-Miller recognised her name. She then sees Kate, and remembers her as her estranged friend that slept with her former boyfriend. She then introduces her transgender son, Blue Nathan, when he is caught by Jack Hannah stealing from the cafeteria, as the product of her affair with Nicole's ex. Kate mentions that they are no longer on speaking terms and has had very little in Blues growing up. She later befriends Nicole and after having been kicked out of her flat with Blue, they move into The Deco House with Nicole and her family.
After Rachel McKenna leaves, she has a fling with Chris Warner but after she finds out Mo Hannah has feelings for her, they both decide to stop seeing each other. Kate then starts a relationship with Mo and she moves in with Blue. Kate finds it difficult to accept that Blue wants to start transitioning to male, believing that he may want to change his decision down the track. She later accepts his decision. Mo's wife Margaret Hannah returns to Ferndale much to Mo's dislike. Kate then reminds Mo that Margaret is the biological mother to his children. As Mo and Margaret are about to sign their divorce papers, they have sex. Kate finds out and leaves Mo. She then moves in with Chris and they start a relationship, only to later break up with him and marry Mo. Her overprotective and overbearing ways with Blue also left him leaving in 2018 as he lives with his new girlfriend, a fellow art student in a studio apartment that Kate deemed unlivable. He also discovered that Zoe Carlson, her younger sister returned to Ferndale.
In May, with Kylie dealing with a miscarriage, and Nicole hit by Finn, and suffered broken femur, Kate and Vinnie are next in line to take over as Director of Nursing. But Nicole was well enough to resume her duties.
On 25 June 2018 Blue returned to celebrate her birthday, but Kate was abducted by the serial rapist just as she finished work and was in the carpark trying to buy extra supplies for home. Kate fought him off, so she wasn't raped, but she still suffered broken orbital bone, which prompted Blue to move back in to live with the Hannahs. Nicole and her actually felt more insecure and paranoid over the extra security measures put in place by Te Rongopai.
In 2018 cliffhanger, she was also involved in the plane crashed, which eventually killed Mo, after Mo died, she had been in an on-and-off relationship with Chris Warner while she found out she is pregnant with a child of Mo. This storyline was actually written in lieu of Laurel's real-life pregnancy. After Koru, a baby boy was born in June, 2019, she decided to leave with him to live with Mo's extended family. Kate returned with her baby to support her son Blue on 11 October 2019.
Kate would return briefly in 2022. Kate would make several appears in 2023, now working at Central Hospital. Kate appears briefly in January working alongside stepson Jack whilst he temporarily worked at Central’s emergency department. Kate next appears in December, having been brought in as a patient following an assault. Kate reveals she now a Nurse practitioner at Central and collaborates with Shortland Street CEO Esther Walker over a joint response to an ongoing drug crisis. Kate is last seen as an attendee at Chris Warner’s New Years Eve boat party.
Cam McCaskill
Cam McCaskill, played by Ryan Carter, made his first appearance on 1 July 2016.Cam arrives at the I.V. bar and is recognised to Bella Durville as a famous food critic, however, this is not the case. Unknown to Bella, she strives to impress him and he doesn't correct her regarding his notability. After his meal, he confesses that he is not a famous food critic but he is however a qualified chef and brother of Drew McCaskill. He is later employed as the head chef of the I.V. bar and after Bella puts the bar on the market, he attempts to persuade Drew to buy it. Drew declines his offer thinking he is still an immature kid. He approaches Vinnie Kruse-Miller and Nicole Kruse-Miller to invest instead, but Drew warns them off. Later, still determined to buy the bar, he ends up coming to an agreement with Nicole, Vinnie, and Drew and buys the bar. After some celebrations, Vinnie tells him that he wants to vamp up the party and Cam misunderstands this with wanting to take drugs and offers cocaine. Vinnie corrects him and tells him he doesn't want drugs on the premises. Nicole and Vinnie agree to keep Cam as chef but keep a close eye on him. He revamps the bar menu, but the costs of his ingredients prove to be too high and the bar suffers. Nicole and Vinnie notice they are making little return from their investment and bring the issue up with Drew. Drew insists to tell him that he needs to cut the costs. He does, but Cam refuses causing an argument between the pair. Stresses get to Cam and he turns back to drugs. His ex-girlfriend arrives and she reveals that she had left her husband and that they can finally be together. However, this is not the case and she is in Auckland with her husband in hope to use his brother, Drew, to carry out illegal cosmetic surgery on her husband as he was in trouble. After Cam is lured onto a boat with her husband, he calls Drew and tells him to come. Kylie Brown, Cam's girlfriend, also comes along with Drew. After they arrive, they soon find out that it was a trap and are forced to carry out the surgery. Cam later starts a relationship with Jack Hannah, having never had a homosexual relationship in the past. After he is discovered with drugs, Jack takes them to his house and hides them. Jacks brother, Curtis, takes the blame in order to keep Jack out of prison. Later, Curtis ends up being charged and is taken to prison with Mo blaming Cam for it. Cam later tells Jack that their relationship cannot continue, much to Jack's dismay. He later leaves Ferndale, and was later mentioned that he has a new girlfriend.