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 shows 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.