List of Shortland Street characters introduced in 2015
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 2015 by order of first appearance. All characters are introduced by the shows executive producer Simon Bennett. The 24th season of Shortland Street began airing on 19 January 2015 and concluded on 15 December 2015.
Victoria Anderton
Victoria "Tor" Anderton, played by Laura Thompson, made her first appearance on 11 March 2015. Thompson secured the role shortly after graduating from drama school.Victoria arrives at Shortland Street Hospital as part of a surgical exchange program. She reconnects with old-colleague Boyd Rolleston. Victoria's father dies, and after initial sparks with Garrett Whitley, Victoria develops feelings for married father Mo Hannah after treating his daughter Pixie Hannah. At the end of the year, Drew McCaskill is shot by an anonymous shooter. It is later revealed that the shooter is Victoria, who is angry at Drew for sleeping with and dumping her earlier in the year. After framing Mo's wife [|Margaret Hannah] for the attempted murder of Drew on top of her actual fraud, Victoria starts a relationship with Mo, much to the dislike of Mo's son Curtis. When Margaret returns, Victoria tries to kill her by blowing up her caravan while in the midst of faking a pregnancy to keep Mo in a relationship.
After failing to kill Margaret, Victoria gets Curtis sent to prison by drugging his food. When Curtis passes a routine drug test with the help of his brother Jack, Victoria's plans begin to unravel. Ali Karim, who at the time was staying with the Hannahs, reveals that Victoria had not gone to work at Central as she claimed to have done while the Hannahs were visiting Margaret. Victoria takes a syringe full of Drew's blood from a discarded blood bag and injects it onto Curtis' hospital scrubs to frame Curtis for the murder, but again fails to get Curtis in trouble. Harper Whitley becomes suspicious of Victoria after noticing some odd patterns with her behaviour. After being confronted by Harper, Victoria snaps and tells Harper that Drew deserved it having slept with her and discarding her. After admitting her crimes to Mo, Victoria takes off in a car to avoid arrest. Coming across two children, Victoria swerves and crashes into a tree, succumbing to her injuries upon admittance to hospital.
Jimmy Isaac
Jimmy Isaac, played by Joel Tobeck, made his first appearance on 24 March 2015. Jimmy is Tobeck's second role on the show, having previously portrayed Craig Develter from 1995 to 1996.Murray Cooper contacts Jimmy and is given permission to foster his son Kane Jenkins. The following year, Jimmy makes contact with Kane and suspiciously transfers him a large sum of money before arriving to Ferndale to claim it. After finishing his career as a musician, Jimmy begins work at The I.V. and begins a romance with Kane's foster sister, Bella Durville, leaving her pregnant. Kane's sister Dayna Jenkins is shocked to discover Jimmy was her father too after a paternity test. Jimmy and Bella break up following Jimmy having an affair. Bella gives birth to their daughter, Stevie Isaac, and Jimmy commits to being the best father he can. He is then offered the opportunity to pick up his music career and declines it to spend time with his daughter. Bella soon convinces Jimmy to take the job and he departs Ferndale.
Pixie Hannah
Pikitia Rose "Pixie" Hannah, played by Thomasin McKenzie, made her first appearance on 25 March 2015. Thomasin McKenzie is a second-generation Shortland Street actor as the daughter of Miranda Harcourt, who has played many recurring roles including Madeline Trent in 2000 and as Susan Rolleston being the mother of Boyd Rolleston in 2013.After initially clashing with fellow footballer Harry Warner, the two become good friends and they begin to date. During football practice, Pixie collapses and it was later revealed she had bone cancer in her right leg, leading to treatment. Her brothers Jack and Curtis feed her marijuana brownies as pain relief. Following two large surgeries, the tumour was removed and Pixie enters remission. To celebrate her 14th birthday, Pixie goes away on holiday with the Warners but after helping Harry get out of a dangerous river, she develops pneumonia and as a result of her chemotherapy-suppressed immune system, she is hospitalised and suffering breathing problems. Pixie confesses her love to Harry and dies, surrounded by her family.
On the 2018 cliffhanger, her voice was featured when Mo suffered a punctured lung, and is dying after coughing out blood after kissing Kate inadvertently forced haematoma and blood clot out of his lungs.
Alex Dean
Alex Dean, played by Richard Osbourne, made his first appearance on 2 April 2015.Alex arrives to the hospital as the new physiotherapist, instantly attracting the attention of Lucy Rickman. It soon turned out receptionist Clementine Dean was his adopted sister. Alex and Lucy began to date but Nicole Miller discovered that Alex had just left a same-sex relationship. When Lucy and Clementine discovered this, they encouraged Alex to come out to his family, even though this left Lucy emotionally vulnerable after falling for him. Following an assault on Clementine that left her paralysed, the siblings moved to Christchurch for a paralysis unit.
Mo Hannah
Moutere "Mo" Hannah, played by Jarod Rawiri, made his first appearance on 10 April 2015.Mo was present at a football match where his daughter Pixie is playing and later collapses. He later got a job at the hospital working as an orderly. His daughter Pixie was later discovered to have cancer. Mo struggled to earn a steady wage and hold his family together whilst Pixie is going through treatment. Mo was devastated after Pixie dies whilst staying with his friend Chris Warner. His wife Margaret is later framed for murder by Victoria Anderton for attempting to kill Drew McCaskill. Margaret goes on the run and Mo began a relationship with Victoria, believing that Margaret is guilty. Mo becomes friends with new nurse Kate Nathan who helps Mo attempt to up skill. Victoria feels her relationship with Mo may be at risk so she fakes a pregnancy to keep him at her side. Mo finds his sons visiting Margaret. After convincing Margaret to turn herself into the police for her fraud, Mo returns to Victoria who fakes losing her baby to complete her con. Mo soon discovers Victoria is guilty of shooting Drew and also manipulating his family. When Victoria tries to escape he attempts to phone the police, Victoria crashes her car into a tree and dies of her injuries in hospital just after telling Mo she loves him. Mo starts a relationship with Kate after a blessing from his sons. Kate soon moves in with Mo along with her son Blue Nathan. Margaret returns. She and Mo decide to divorce but as they were about to sign the divorce papers they have sex. The guilt got to him as he confessed to Kate shortly before they were due to marry. Kate moves out with Blue and Margaret leaves to live with her sister. He later reconciles with Kate and the pair marry. He briefly worked in the DHB, as an incoming board member. In the 2018 finale, he, Chris, Kate and Jack are involved in a plane crash. While Jack is left with serious injuries, he hides the severity of his injuries as tensions with Chris rise. He later collapses as help arrives and, next to Chris and Kate, dies from his injuries. Mo suffered a punctured lung, and died after coughing out blood after kissing Kate inadvertently forced haematoma and blood clot out of his lungs.
On the first episode of the 2019 season, he is seen as a corpse in the mortuary. In 2023, Mo, alongside TK's former wives Sarah and Roimata would appear to TK in spirit form, willing him back to life after he'd been shot and taken off of life support.
Curtis Hannah
Curtis Hannah, played by Jayden Daniels, made his first screen appearance on 4 May 2015. Curtis is Daniels' first major television role after graduating from drama school. Daniels described his character as "a bit of a bad boy". Curtis was killed off in the Retribution series over the 2021-2022 Summer which went over his career as an undercover detective.Damo Johnson
Damo Johnson, played by comedian Grant Lobban, made his first appearance on 11 May 2015. The character appeared in two recurring stints throughout 2015, and from 2016 a permanent recurring stint. Damo was well received online following the airing of his episodes; following his first appearance, Shorty Street Scandal satirically named Damo and Kylie as the "Hookup of the week". Following Damo's later appearance, The Spinoff writer Tara Ward gave him the "Shortland Street power ranking" of number 1 of the week, calling the character "batshit crazy" and suggesting the show was better for it. She concluded her review by suggesting, "Damo for Prime Minister".Margaret Hannah
Margaret Hannah first appeared in late July 2015, portrayed by Debbie Newby-Ward. Margaret is Newby-Ward's second role in the show, having previously portrayed Nicola Halley in 1996. Margaret was the wife of Mo Hannah and the mother of Curtis, Jack and Pixie.Whilst Mo, Pixie, and Jack lived in Ferndale, Margaret was the primary money earner, living in Australia with Curtis. Mo announced that Margaret planned to return when Pixie was diagnosed with cancer but was arrested for embezzlement, which the family assumed she was covering for Curtis. In July she arrived to Ferndale having been released from jail. She landed a job at the hospital but the stress of Pixie's cancer and subsequent death lead her to start embezzling money from the plastic surgery clinic. Victoria Anderton and Drew McCaskill discovered her fraud and when Drew was found with several gunshots in his back, Margaret was the prime suspect. She fled Ferndale, only increasing the suspicion on her, leaving Mo and Victoria to start a relationship. She returned in May, when Mo, Jack and Curtis are on a camping trip and decided to turn herself in for embezzlement.
By the time Margaret was out on parole a year later, Jack managed to help her move into a rental house as she started a new job as a floral assistant. She had yet to formally divorce from Mo Hannah, who is engaged to Kate Nathan. While Mo resents Jack for helping Margaret, Kate reminded Mo that Margaret is still Jack's biological mother. After she was nearly molested by Jim, her landlord, she moved into Mo's house, but as they were to confirm their divorce, they had goodbye sex which Mo later confessed to Kate, so Margaret left Auckland, while Kate moved out with Blue.
Margaret returns in 2019, having found a new partner and briefly lived in Australia, but she returned to get tests done as she has been complaining of abdominal pain. She was later discovered to have early-stage uterine cancer due to uterine sarcomas.