Stuart Neilson
| Stuart Neilson | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||||||||||
| Shortland Street character | |||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Martin Henderson | ||||||||||||
| Duration | 1992–95 | ||||||||||||
| First appearance | 25 May 1992 | ||||||||||||
| Last appearance | 27 February 1995 | ||||||||||||
| Created by | Bettina Hollings | ||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Caterina De Nave | ||||||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||
| Occupation | Property investor (1994–95) | ||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
| Father | Tom Neilson |
|---|---|
| Mother | Marj Brasch |
| Brothers |
Darryl Neilson Patrick Neilson Damien Neilson |
| Half-sisters | Jane Fitzgerald |
| Nephews | Robert Neilson |
| Nieces | Melissa Neilson |
Stuart Neilson is a fictional character in the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street who was portrayed by Martin Henderson as part of the original cast until early 1995.
The character's three years on the soap exhibited several major story lines as well as social commentary on youth, religion and mental illness. Stuart was introduced alongside mother, Marj (Elizabeth McRae) and father, Tom Neilson (Adrian Keeling) and brothers, Darryl (Mark Ferguson) and Damien (Mark Ferguson) who appeared on sporadic stints and eldest brother Patrick (uncredited actor) who appeared for a single guest appearance.
The character was generally well received with Henderson winning the "Best Male Dramatic Performance in a Television Show" in the 1993 New Zealand Television and Film Awards. The character has since become iconic after leaving in 1995.
With the intention of creating a diverse and racially sensitive cast for a New Zealand soap opera, Caterina De Nave, Bettina Hollings and Jason Daniel decided to incorporate two teenage heart throbs to draw in the teenage audience. The characters of Stuart and Nick were created with the intention of Nick being a drug smoking rebel whilst Stuart was to be an articulate homosexual. The character was written as part of a family unit consisting of himself, his father Tom (Adrian Keeling), mother Marj (Elizabeth McRae) and several recurring brothers. This again allowed more relevance to the audience and a greater chance of drawing in a diverse audience.
Martin Henderson was in his final year of high school when he auditioned and won the role over 900 other contenders.Oliver Driver also auditioned for the role and ended up getting the role of Mike Galloway several years later. Stuart debuted in the first episode with the gay storyline set to be exposed when female character – Kirsty Knight (Angela Dotchin), made moves on Stuart. However the character of Nick as portrayed by Karl Burnett was vastly different from the characters original badboy synopsis and was hastily rewritten to suit Burnett's more comedic portrayal. However this left viewers with only one heart throb on screen and a nervous Television New Zealand requested the character was rewritten to be straight so that the show remained appealing to the target audience of young females. However, on screen Stuart was shown to be rebuffing Kirsty's advances and writers quickly rewrote the character's backstory so that rather than being gay, he was heavily religious and celibate.
...
Wikipedia