Emily Devine

Emily arrived to the clinic as a new pathologist in late 1995 and immediately drew intrigue due to her odd and mild manner. No one was more interested than polar opposite and ex-medical school friend Chris Warner (Michael Galvin), who made it his mission to find Emily a man. The odd-duo ended up flatting together and developed a strong friendship and double act. Scandal hit the hospital when homeless boy Fergus Kearney (Paul Ellis) was hospitalised with blunt-force trauma and many suspected security guard Laurie Brasch (Chic Littlewood). Laurie was suspended from his job but all were shocked when Emily confessed that she had caught Fergus robbing her lab and hit him with her stethoscope. Emily clashed immensely with Chris' partner Tiffany Pratt (Alison James) but the two came to develop a close bond and she befriended the teenaged lab assistant Jonathon McKenna (Kieren Hutchison), whom she supported in his sexuality and HIV scare. She was briefly involved with Tiffany's brother Tyrone (David Gibson) before starting a relationship with Nigel towards the end of 1996, though she struggled with his illiteracy and left him. In 1997 Emily began to suffer from low self-confidence and started internet dating using Caroline Buxton's (Tandi Wright) identity as she believed no man would be attracted to her. This led to her falling in love with clinic doctor Gary Travis (Stuart Turner), who was shocked to discover Emily was behind the computer whilst he was dating Caroline in real-life. Emily began to investigate a mysterious spate of VCRA infections and worried all with her self-experimentation. Ultimately Gary realised he too was in love with Emily but departed Ferndale, leaving Emily to continue her research. Emily's self-research proved highly controversial, leading to severe moodswings and she resigned from the clinic in the aftermath. After uncovering a breakthrough medicine, Emily was headhunted for a pharmaceutical company in Switzerland.

In February 2019 'The I.V. Bar' owners Leanne Black (Jennifer Ludlam) and Damo Johnson (Grant Lobban) interrupted a homeless person wandering in the bar's upstairs hotel accommodation which lead to Leanne pushing them down the stairs. Fearing that they had died, the couple abandoned the body in the back-alleyway only for it to have disappeared the following day. 17 months later the couple were shocked when the homeless person arrived to the hospital and was identified by Chris Warner as his old friend Emily. Diagnosed with early-onset dementia, suffering significant memory loss and having been homeless for several years, Emily proved erratic at the hospital and escaped several times much to Leanne's horror at potentially exposing her stairway crime. During one of her escapes, Paramedic Eddie Adams (Rawiri Jobe) discovered her crouched over a man who had been stabbed, leading to speculation she was "The Creep" an anonymous assailant stealing body organs from homeless children around Ferndale. Emily escaped but suggested to hospital orderly Louis King (Henry Rolleston) she knew the true identity of "The Creep". She was later tracked down by Chris and Louis only to die, having been battered in the head presumably by "The Creep".

The long running Shortland Street casting director Marianne Willison named Rooney's casting as Emily to be one of her favourite decisions.^[4] Rooney worked as a scriptwriter and editor 20 years after leaving the role and described the "fun" she had playing the character with a "bun, glasses, and a centre-part."^[3] The character was referred to by The New Zealand Herald as a previous portrayal of the "classic nerd" archetype with "memorable bad-hair-and-glasses boffins".^[5]

Emily's return and dementia diagnosis was praised and noted as an example of Shortland Street depicting social commentary within its storylines.^[6]