High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Chris Pappas is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Neighbours, played by James Mason. Mason was told the character was gay when he successfully auditioned for the role in 2009. He began filming his first scenes in October of that year and he made his first on-screen appearance on 25 February 2010. Executive producer Susan Bower said the character`s storyline was created because of requests from young viewers in the Neighbours website`s online forums. The storyline has also been based on the real life experiences of the show`s writers. Chris is the first prominent, ongoing male homosexual character in the show`s twenty-five year history. He is the second ongoing homosexual character overall, following Lana Crawford`s (Bridget Neval) introduction in 2004.