| Chris Pappas | |||||||||||||
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| Neighbours character | |||||||||||||
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| Portrayed by | James Mason | ||||||||||||
| Duration | 2010–2015, 2022 | ||||||||||||
| First appearance | 25 February 2010 | ||||||||||||
| Last appearance | 28 July 2022 | ||||||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Susan Bower (2010) Jason Herbison (2022) | ||||||||||||
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Chris Pappas is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Neighbours, played by James Mason. Mason originally read for the role of Andrew Robinson, before he was called back to audition for Chris three days later. He was told during the audition that the character would be gay. He began filming his first scenes in October 2009, and he made his first appearance during the episode broadcast on 25 February 2010. Executive producer Susan Bower said the character was created because of requests from young viewers in the Neighbours website's online forums. The character's sexuality storyline was also based on the real life experiences of the show's writers. Chris became the first prominent, regular male homosexual character in the show's twenty-five-year history. He was the second ongoing homosexual character overall, following Lana Crawford's (Bridget Neval) introduction in 2004.
Chris is introduced as a high school student, who befriends the soap's other teen characters and becomes captain of the school's basketball team. He briefly dates Summer Hoyland (Jordy Lucas), before revealing that he is gay. Chris struggles with his sexuality and the reactions of his friends, family and teammates. Writers explored the issue of homophobia when Chris is confronted by a homophobic customer while working at the local garage. The character was given a love interest in nurse Aidan Foster (Bobby Morley), and they formed Neighbours' first gay couple. Chris was central to a coward punch storyline in 2014, which was a topical issue in Australia at the time. Producers also established a relationship between him and Nate Kinski (Meyne Wyatt), and he fathered a child with his friend Lucy Robinson (Melissa Bell), shortly before his exit which aired on 27 March 2015. He made a cameo appearance on 6 November 2015 and reprised his role for the show's final episodes in 2022.
Bower expected Chris's coming out storyline to receive criticism and some media commentators called it "an obvious ratings grab". Mason and the show's script producer defended the storyline, saying that it was not a ploy to boost ratings and that it explored how Chris's coming out affected the people around him. Television critics and LGBT websites have given the character and his storyline development a positive reception. In 2012, Mason earned a nomination for the Logie Award for Most Popular New Male Talent.