Amanda Billing

After three years as a high school teacher, Masterton-raised Amanda Billing began a decade long run on Shortland Street in 2004. Four years later her character, feisty doctor Sarah Potts, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, in an extended storyline that won praise from many real life MS sufferers. When her character passed away suddenly in mid 2014, a tribute page attracted hundreds of positive comments. Since then Billing has presented Sensing Murder, acted in Find Me a Māori Bride and The Bad Seed, and displayed her musical talents in Cabaret, The Threepenny Opera and Auckland’s Jubilation Choir.

I love Sarah. She’s generous, thoughtful, principled, though she’s also infuriating and can be a shrew. Playing her is like having a sibling who drives you insane: you’ve always with them but have no control over how they behave. Amanda Billing on her Shortland Street role, The NZ Herald, 28 May 2008