Krista Sinclair
Krista Sinclair is a fictional character from the Australian television soap opera Neighbours, played by Majella Davis. She made her first appearance as Krista during the episode broadcast on 13 November 2023. Davis originally auditioned for other regular roles before receiving the part. Krista was introduced during episodes containing a series of flashback scenes exploring stories set during a two-year time jump. Krista was first subject to a missing person story involving her half-sister, Reece Sinclair, who arrives to find her. Krista was given a shared backstory with Melanie Pearson and established friendships with Holly Hoyland and Eden Shaw, which were explored in the flashback episodes. Davis has described Krista's characterisation as "very fun and eccentric and she loves life." During her first year in the series, writers transformed Krista from a party girl into a business woman, running the Lassiters hotel alongside Paul Robinson. They originally are portrayed as enemies but Paul later assumes a "father figure" role towards Krista.
Krista is an alcoholic and drug addict and these traits often play into her storylines. Her early stories focused on her friendship with David Tanaka, who helps Krista get sober. Krista soon discovers she is pregnant with Eden's child and vows to remain sober. Writers also developed a relationship with Leo Tanaka, which became more prominent during her second year in the series. Writers also developed a feud with Chelsea Murphy, which featured them competing in their roles at Lassiters. Their rivalry ends in turmoil when Chelsea locks Krista in a sauna room causing her to be hospitalised. Writers used Krista to explore the issue of stillbirth. Krista's baby dies following the sauna incident. Davis revealed that she researched stillbirth extensively and wanted to portray the story with sensitivity for the show's audience. She also revealed it was one of her favourite storylines to portray. Krista subsequently has a drugs relapse and struggles to cope with her grief.
The introduction of her best friend, Sebastian Metcalfe and her half-sister, Fallon Morell further explored her backstory. Krista feels responsible for introducing Sebastian to drugs and tries to help him to the detriment of her relationship with Leo. Fallon resents Krista for her privileged upbringing and teams up with Sebastian to ruin her relationship with Leo. Producers decided to make Krista and Leo's wedding storyline centric to the show's 40th anniversary. Fallon succeeds in manipulating and ruining Krista's relationship by claiming to have had sex with Leo. Krista responds by having sex with Sebastian and Fallon reveals her plotting. Krista and Leo marry but she later reveals her infidelity. Krista has been well received by television critics who praised Davis' performances. Davis has also been nominated for an Inside Soap Award for her portrayal of Krista.
Casting
Before receiving the role of Krista, Davis auditioned for the roles of Chloe Brennan and Nicolette Stone but was unsuccessful. On 21 November 2023, Neighbours social media accounts confirmed that Davis had joined the show's regular cast. Davis revealed on Instagram that she had been hired on a one year contract. Krista is her first ongoing acting role, which she branded as her debut "official big gig". Davis revealed her gratitude to join the cast of a "wonderful company" and thanked her supporters. Davis made her first on-screen appearance as Krista during Episode 8936, which was broadcast on 13 November 2023. Davis was added to the show's opening titles from 27 November 2023.Development
Characterisation
Krista's characterisation was previewed in the Ramsay Street Revelations video series. Davis revealed that Krista is "a very outgoing person. She's very fun and eccentric and she loves life. She loves the party vibe." Krista has been ordered to fit her family mould by taking on her family's business and "go into the family line and she does not want to, so she has taken a little journey down to Ramsay Street to evade her family." Davis promised Krista would have "lots of ups and downs" in her storylines and teased a "great redemption" arc for the character. In 2024, Davis revealed that she was "obsessed" with Krista and her storylines, which made her "fun" to portray. Davis summarised that Krista developed quickly during her first year in the show. She noted the character had been hospitalised numerous times and took on the role of running Lassiters. She added "it's exciting to see Krista stepping into her feminine power." In March 2024, Davis revealed that she wanted Krista to have more "wins" because she really does "love seeing her thrive".Introduction and flashback week
Prior to her debut, Krista was subject to a mystery storyline involving her half-sister of Reece Sinclair. Barton publicised that Reece's motive for being in Erinsborough is to track down her sister. Davis was unaware of the connection between her and Barton's characters until she noticed Krista and Reece's surnames were identical. It was later revealed that Krista is friends with the characters Holly Hoyland and Eden Shaw. Their friendship is explored during a special week of episodes containing flashback scenes. These were designed to show viewers stories that had occurred whilst Neighbours had ceased broadcasting. Armstrong Hall told Sarah Ellis from Inside Soap that Krista meets Holly and Eden, who are in a relationship in Erinsborough. They become friends and go on a road trip together because they "just wanted to escape, go have fun and be young together." Krista and Holly develop a close friendship and spend a year together. Krista also becomes close to Eden and they have sex. Armstrong Hall revealed that their betrayal is "really heart-breaking". On 12 November 2023, Amazon Freevee released a trailer promoting Reece's search for Krista. In the video Reece discovers a photograph of Krista, Holly and Eden, confirming their friendship.During the first episode of flashback week, writers established Krista with further connections to their characters, with the reveal that Krista is an old acquaintance of Melanie Pearson. One flashback scene reveals that Melanie meets with Krista on her wedding day to Toadie Rebecchi, which originally occurred in the episodic timeline of Neighbours: The Finale. Further scenes reveal to viewers that Melanie worked as a housekeeper for Krista's family in England. Melanie had tried to protect Krista after she became embroiled in a drug deal. Melanie reveals she was captured on CCTV at the deal and fled to Australia to evade the police. In another flashback, Krista blackmails Melanie for money and threatens to otherwise tell Toadie about their criminal past. Cowden recalled her shock when she learned about the storyline. She added desperately wanted Melanie to tell Toadie the truth as soon as Krista arrived. In another flashback week episode it is revealed that Krista and Eden continue to blackmail Melanie. This leads to a confrontation between Krista and Melanie with the latter pushing Krista, who hits her head. Melanie believes that she has killed Krista and Paul Robinson helps cover up her death. This causes Melanie to leave Toadie and flee Erinsborough. The stunt was filmed on the set of the Lassiter's hotel rooftop, which has a swimming pool and into which Krista falls after hitting her head. When they filmed the scene outside it was raining. Sequences were filmed showing Cowden pushing Davis into the swimming pool. Davis had a stunt coordinator, a safety supervisor and a stunt double on-set to help film the scenes. There was also a nurse present in case Davis was injured while performing the stunt.
In a plot twist, Krista is later revealed to be alive and living with Eden. Holly and Haz Devkar find Krista in a basement and where she lay ill because of her drug addiction. After which she is introduced into the show's then, current storylines. Krista is diagnosed with pneumonia and upon being discharged she tries to wean herself off drugs with the support of David Tanaka. He eventually convinces her enter rehab to treat her drug and alcohol addiction. She decides to check herself out after one week and half which causes David concern. He worries that Krista will be unable to cope with the death of her father, Conrad Sinclair. When David carries out a welfare check on Krista, he is shocked that she appears to be dealing with her sobriety well. Honda enjoyed working on the story with Davis. He told Chloe Timms from Inside Soap that his favourite scene from the show's Amazon era was David and Krista sitting in a car, where they "connect" and become friends. David supports Krista when she thinks about taking drugs again. Honda explained that "it was the first real moment the two characters had and there was a really nice dynamic between me and Majella."
Krista soon discovers she is pregnant with Eden's child. Krista and her boyfriend Leo Tanaka, David and his husband, Aaron Brennan go on holiday together. Eden follows them and confronts Krista about keeping her pregnancy from him. Leo tries to protect Krista and a fight ensues between him and Eden. David intervenes and he and Eden fall off a cliff. Davis told Daniel Kilkelly and Sophie Dainty from Digital Spy that "Krista is terrified" and seeing Eden again is a "massive shock and just overwhelming". She had believed Eden was in prison and believed everything was fine temporarily. Davis revealed that Eden knowing about her pregnancy is "so terrifying" for Krista. Davis told a TV Week reporter that Krista is caught "completely off guard" by Eden because she is "wrapped up in her love bubble with Leo." She explained that Krista is not a "damsel" type of character but is glad Leo, Aaron and David are their to support her. She also believed Krista "feels a sense of guilt" for having implicated them "into her mess" with Eden. The scenes were filmed on location in a mountainous area in mid-2023. It was Davis' first experience with location filming and she revealed that it was cold because of winter time filming. Davis recalled the experience as being "really cool". Writers killed David off as a result of the stunt. Davis later named David's death one of her favourite storylines because it was "such a pivotal moment in the show and for Krista's character."