The following is a list of the 16 original regular characters from the long-running TVNZ soap opera Shortland Street. Envisioned by the show's creator Caterina De Nave alongside Jason Daniel, Ken Catran, amongst others, the characters were meant to demonstrate workers in a busy domesticated city, working in a private medical clinic. They utilized the characters to not only portray a large range of nationalities, but also reach out to several different age and gender demographics. Original cast Creation As part of creating the soap that was to become Shortland Street, Caterina De Nave had numerous goals she wished to achieve. These included the development of several characters that would expand the soap's demographic and relate to viewers. After viewing Australian soaps, Neighbours and Home and Away, De Nave noticed that the casts had very little ethnic diversity and decided to include characters from several ethnicities into Shortland Street's cast to represent New Zealand's culture. This led to the development of two Māori characters and a Samoan. 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. 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. The show's key demographic was female teenagers and therefore De Nave decided to incorporate several young teen characters into the programme. The producers hoped that the inclusion of warm, relatable teenagers who were involved in the community would provide relatability and role models for viewers. To entice young females, two teenage "heart throbs" were created, Stuart Neilson and Nick Harrison. Stuart was created as an articulate homosexual whilst Nick was a drug taking rebel. Martin Henderson and Karl Burnett won the roles, however Burnett's portrayal of Nick proved to be a lot more comedic and goofy than was initially imagined and the network started to worry that this would leave a gay male as the only remaining heart throb. To explain the scripts which saw Stuart rebuff the advances of a female, producers rewrote Stuart to be heavily religious instead of gay. Family units were also a key aspect of luring demographics and the characters of Nick and Stuart were built around a