Sarah O'Neale (née Thompson) is a fictional character from the Australian Channel Seven soap opera Home and Away, played by Laura Vasquez. The character debuted on-screen during the episode airing on 26 January 1993. Vasquez's screen-test for the role was one of her career highlights. Sarah is characterised as a "real good goody" female who is "very intelligent" and she arrives to study in Summer Bay. Sarah's main romance storyline is with Tug O'Neale (Tristan Bancks). Subsequently Vasquez and Bancks became fixtures in the media, as interest increased about the nature of the actor's off-screen relationship. Mary Fletcher from Woman's Own wrote that Home and Away producers were infuriated by the reports because they felt it discredited the show's image. But the actors later denied any romance occurring off-screen. During her tenure, Sarah also dates Nathan Roberts (David Dixon) and he attempts to get Sarah to lose her virginity to him. Vasquez has stated that her favourite storyline for Sarah was an asthma attack because it portrayed the seriousness of the condition. Vasquez later left the series and Sarah departed during October 1994, but the actress returned for guest appearances in 1995 and 2005. Lisa Anthony from BIG! said that Sarah was a "quiet" character and Justine Cullen writing for Inside Soap said that she was unlucky in love. Two episodes of the serial centric to Sarah's storyline were also nominated for an Australian Film Institute award.