When Neighbours was cancelled earlier this year, Stefan Dennis found himself freed up to appear on Strictly Come Dancing.
Dennis, 66, was one of the Australian soap’s longest-serving stars, playing Ramsay Street’s villainous businessman Paul Robinson in its very first episode in March 1985.
After officially leaving the show in 1993, he returned in 2004, playing Paul right up until the show’s ending, amassing an overall tally of more than 6,000 episodes.
Neighbours afforded Dennis plenty of career opportunities and, after leaving the soap in the early 1990s, he moved to the UK and became a staple on the pantomime scene, in which he’d play the baddie.
Speaking about playing such a memorable villain, Dennis said people often “shy away” from him as “they actually think I am like him in real life”, something he views as “a real compliment”.
He originally auditioned for the roles of Shane Ramsay and Des Clarke, characters who were ultimately played by Peter O’Brien and Paul Keane, respectively.
After Dennis’s short stint in BBC Scotland soap River City in 2002-03, he returned to Australia and resumed his Neighbours role for what he believed would be just two weeks. He remained on the soap for another 22 years.
Speaking about the show’s cancellation, Dennis told Loose Women: “Not to get into the politics of it, but none of us really know why it got axed this time around because it was rating really well all over the world, so we’re all scratching our heads, going, ‘Why?’”
The show was previously saved from cancellation in 2022.
Away from acting, Dennis, a skilled pipe organist, embarked upon a music career in 1989, releasing two singles: “Don’t It Make You Feel Good” and “The Love Affair”.
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He also set a kart racing world record in 1995 after participating in a 24-hour endurance test. His team, which included David Brabham, Russ Malkin and Steve Malkin, managed 1,664.7 km (1,034.397 mi) on a 1.3 km (0.808 mi) track at Brooklands in Surrey.
Dennis, who once dated his Neighbours co-stars Natalie Imbruglia and Gayle Blakeney, has been married twice.
His 10-year marriage to model and The Price Is Right star Roz Roy ended in 1989 and, in 2000, he wedded Gail Easdale, with whom he has three children.
Dennis is Strictly 2025’s oldest contestant and, speaking about his participation, he said: “This is an opportunity for me to once again learn to step out of my comfort zone in the world of television.”
He also said it’s a privilege to “learn a new talent”.
