10 Facts About… Stefan Dennis (Neighbours’ Paul)
lnsidesoap YOUR BRIEFING ON THE MAN BEHIND NEIGHBOURS’ PAUL…
1 Stefan Dennis was born in the town Tawonga, Victoria, Australia on 30 October 1958.
He has an older brother called Chris, and the two of them studied at a boarding school in Australia. Their eldest brother, John, sadly died just before his 13th birthday. At a young age, Stefan and Chris both loved entertaining and they formed a vocal group, regularly performing together at weddings and charity events. Talented Stefan launched his acting career when he was just 11 years old, in an amateur production of the musical Oliver! in Queensland.
2 Despite taking up an apprenticeship as a chef, Stefan soon returned to acting,
with small guest roles in TV. On Prisoner: Cell Block H, his character was a teenage love interest of Doreen Burns, played by Colette Mann – now better known as Paul Robinson’s best frenemy, Sheila Canning! “I was so nervous, just hopeless,” recalls Stefan of the part. “I was surrounded by this bevy of really big stars, and here I was in my first significant ongoing role.”
3 Stefan stumbled across the part of Paul Robinson by accident! He read for two parts, Shane Ramsay and Des Clarke. Stefan assumed that he had been given the part of Des,
but it wasn’t until he saw his first script that he realised he’d landed the role of Paul. Stefan joined the cast in 1985, left in 1993 and returned to Erinsborough over a decade later in 2004 – and he’s now the longest-running character on an Australian TV show!
4 While Stefan was auditioning for Neighbours, he was waiting for a call back for a film, The Lighthorseman, which he’d also tested for.
Stefan was desperate to star in the movie, but he says that when it was finally released, “it was one of the biggest box office flops in Australian movie history”. Lucky escape, Stefan!
5 Following in the footsteps of his cast family – Kylie Minogue and Jason Donavan – Stefan attempted to launch his own pop career!
His first single, Don’t It Make You Feel Good, reached a notable number 16 in the UK charts in 1989 – but his second song, This Love Affair, released later that year, only managed to claw its way to number 67. Stefan didn’t release any further records.
6 When Stefan originally left Neighbours in 1993, he moved to the UK to pursue other acting avenues.
He swapped the sunny sights of Erinsborough for the Metropolitan police in The Bill, and then landed a part in Scottish soap River City, as Dr Marcus Mckenzie – perhaps an even bigger villain than Paul, who was eventually murdered for his wrongdoings! He still takes on other work, and earlier this year, he had a recurring part in Australian TV show Wentworth.
7 It’s not just TV that Stefan’s excelled in – he’s also dabbled in the world of theatre!
In the early 90s, he starred in Cinderella (alongside
Eastenders’ June Brown, aka Dot), as well as UK productions of Jack And The Beanstalk, Robin Hood and Aladdin. Stefan also took on the role of Blood Brothers’
Mickey in 1994, performing in Oz and New Zealand.
8 Stefan met his wife, Gail Easdale, when they worked on a production of Aladdin at Southampton’s Mayflower Theatre in 1992. The couple later married in 2000 and have three children – Cameron, Declan and Darci.
Gail even acted in Neighbours alongside Stefan in 2016, as his nemesis Julie Quill. Unlike Stefan, Paul Robinson is notorious for being a ladies’ man. Since the show’s first episode in 1985, Paul has got married five times, and he has seven children by four different women!
9 Stefan was once approached to take part in Celebrity Masterchef,
but because he qualified as a chef many years ago, he’s not allowed to take part! Despite this, Stefan confessed that he’d love to be a judge.
“Everybody would expect me to be the nasty judge, and I’d actually want to be the nice judge,” he sighs. “I also want to do Strictly Come Dancing!”
Hopefully one day we’ll see Stefan holding the famous glitter ball!
10 Stefan was convinced that Neighbours would be a huge flop!
“The irony is that it only survived for seven months, then was axed by the network,” he remembers. “I couldn’t resist saying ‘I told you so’ to everyone. But then Channel 10 picked us up. On this particular occasion, I’m more than happy to have been proved wrong!” It’s now been more than 30 years since we first met Paul Robinson – so here’s to many more years of vintage villainy!