Laura Hill

During seven years playing Shortland Street party girl Toni Warner, Laura Hill survived miscarriage, murder attempts and romance with Chris and Guy Warner, before death from kidney failure in mid 2008. In real life, Hill would go on to spend time as one of Shortland 's head writers. Hill moved downunder at age five; she is the daughter of English actor Helena Ross. At Victoria University she got First Class Honours in English Literature; her busy stage CV includes starring as Jane Eyre at Dunedin's Fortune Theatre. Hill has also appeared on Westside as criminal Belinda, and on The Brokenwood Mysteries as a staunch lawyer.

I spent the bulk of my life here, but because I was raised in New Zealand by English parents, it's not like I had the full-on Buzzy Bee, Hairy Maclary upbringing that normal Kiwi kids would have had. It is a weird kind of hybrid. Laura Hill in the Sunday Star-Times, 26 September 2008