Home and Away Cast 2025: New Characters, Departures, and Updates

Summer Bay’s 2025 cast cycle is surprisingly stable: two early arrivals, two departures by mid-year, and a veteran core that has barely budged. This guide tracks exactly who has arrived, who’s still around, and what’s rumored for 2026, so you can keep the cast straight without digging through week-old episode recaps.

First aired: 1988 ·
New characters introduced in 2025: 2 (Lacey Miller, Sophea Pennington) ·
Current season: 2025 (ongoing) ·
Approximate episode count: Over 8,000

Four key facts, one pattern: the show added exactly two new faces in early 2025 and lost two by mid-year, while its veteran core remained untouched.

Here is the show’s basic profile:

Who is new in Home and Away 2025?

New main cast members in 2025

• Lacey Miller — portrayed by Sophea Pennington, arrived in early 2025 as part of the year’s first storyline cycle (Digital Spy (UK soap editor)).
• Sonny — portrayed by Ryan Bown, introduced alongside Lacey as her brother or relative, exact relationship not specified by the network (Yahoo Lifestyle Australia (digital lifestyle platform)).

The implication: two new characters, both arriving in January 2025, represent the only confirmed new cast additions so far this year.

Guest stars in 2025

A Sunrise segment on 2025-05-27 teased “two new faces joining Home and Away” including a “strict new cop and his daughter,” though no names or actor announcements have been made (Sunrise (Seven Network morning show) via YouTube).

The catch: guest appearances are routinely uncredited in advance, and Seven Network has not issued a press release confirming these roles.

Who is joining Home and Away in 2026?

Potential returns

• No official cast announcements for 2026 have been made by the Seven Network (7plus (official streaming platform)).
• Speculation includes possible returns of past characters, but no named sources or credible outlets have reported specific names (New Idea (Australian women’s weekly)).

Rumors for 2026

Who Magazine’s 2025 cast roundup suggests Summer Bay cast changes are “recurring rather than one-off events,” which implies departures and arrivals will continue into 2026 (Who Magazine (Australian entertainment weekly)).

The pattern: speculation exceeds confirmed information by a wide margin. No actor has publicly announced a 2026 exit or signing.

Who is leaving Home and Away 2026 cast?

Bree Cameron’s current status

Bree Cameron, portrayed by Juliet Godwin, remains on the show as of 2025. No departure has been announced (Wikipedia (community-edited encyclopedia)).

Tane Parata’s future

Tane Parata, portrayed by Ethan Browne, also remains in the cast as of 2025 (Back to the Bay (fansite character database)).

Other departure rumors

• No confirmed departures for 2026 have been reported by any tier-1 or tier-2 outlet (Who Magazine).
• The only known 2025 departures are Kirby (portrayed by Angelina Thomson) and Rose (portrayed by Kirsty Marillier), who left earlier in 2025 (Back to the Bay (fansite with verified episode tracking)).

Why this matters: when a show with 15-20 main cast members sees only two departures in a year, that’s a low turnover rate by soap standards. The 2026 roster will likely look very similar to today’s.

Which Home and Away actor passed away recently?

Recent deaths in the cast

No recent deaths have been reported among main cast members of Home and Away (Wikipedia (list of characters)). The question appears to stem from confusion with other soap announcements or from fans mistaking character deaths (which happen frequently in Summer Bay) for actor deaths.

The trade-off: the show has aired over 8,000 episodes since 1988, meaning many original and early cast members have naturally passed away over the decades — but no current or recent main-cast actor has died in 2025.

Who is the new female character in Home and Away?

Lacey Miller

Lacey Miller is a new female character introduced in 2025, portrayed by Sophea Pennington. Digital Spy’s January 2025 report confirmed Lacey as one of two new arrivals, alongside a character named Sonny (Digital Spy (UK soap editor)).

Sophea Pennington

Actress Sophea Pennington was confirmed as the performer behind Lacey Miller by Yahoo Lifestyle Australia on 2025-01-13, making her one of the year’s two confirmed new female cast additions (Yahoo Lifestyle Australia (digital lifestyle platform)).

“Home and Away announced two new characters for 2025 — Lacey and Sonny — marking the year’s first notable cast change.”

— Digital Spy, January 2025 (Digital Spy)

“The new cast shakeup sees Kirby and Rose depart earlier in 2025, while Sophea Pennington and Ryan Bown arrive.”

— Back to the Bay, September 2025 (Back to the Bay)

For the Australian viewer tuning in weekly, the 2025 cast picture is refreshingly simple: two new faces, two departures, and a stable core that has held Summer Bay together for decades. The implication is clear: Seven Network is betting on continuity over churn, keeping the characters audiences have followed for years while slowly rotating the edges.

Related reading: Home and Away cast shakeup with new arrivals and departures · Home and Away 2025 cast guide: who is leaving and joining

For a detailed breakdown of the latest arrivals and departures, check out the 2025 cast updates on Outback Brief.

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