Denny Miller
Denise Miller (2014-2015)
Jessica Grace Smith
Episodes: 5898–6282; 6288–6294
Parent: Ethan MacGuire (deceased) & Olivia Miller
Siblings: Evelyn & Oscar MacGuire (both half)
Occupation: Bait shop assistant/Deckhand
Denny was first seen at Ethan MacGuire’s funeral. After the service, Hannah approached her and asked who she was but Denny refused to answer and booked into the caravan park. When she met Hannah again, she revealed she had never met Ethan but believed he was her father. She later met Zac and Hannah; Hannah was suspicious of her but Zac accepted her story after finding a photo of her as a baby among Ethan’s things. She hoped to meet her half-siblings but Zac had to admit they didn’t want to meet her; however, Oscar then changed his mind and went to see her. He then summoned her to the Diner, saying Evelyn had agreed to meet her, but in fact the thing was a set up and Evelyn stormed out in anger. Denny went to the farmhouse to try and smooth things over with Evelyn but Evelyn accused her of lying. Zac tried to comfort Denny but she got angry when he suggested she have a DNA test to provide proof. She planned to leave town but Zac and Hannah convinced her to talk to Oscar first. Evelyn then turned up and apologised and convinced her to stay.
Denny had dinner with her new family but told them she would have to leave soon because her funds were low. Oscar gave her some money and she was annoyed to find he had stolen it from Hannah’s purse; however, Evelyn then suggested she move in with them. She picked up on the romantic tension between Zac and Hannah; Hannah still hadn’t fully accepted her as part of the family but agreed to her moving in. She learned Hannah was dating Andy and told her to stick at it despite Zac’s feelings. She agreed to a date with Chris and they got on well when he took her to a secret beach for a picnic, but when he revealed Irene had bribed him into going out with her by offering to put a new burger he’d designed on the Diner menu she took off in their boat and left him there. Roo then arranged for her to take over Harvey’s old job as Alf’s assistant. She was put off by Chris’ arrogant behaviour around her but after Alf had given her his opinion of Chris and Chris had approached her in a more sensitive manner she agreed to a date. She and Chris tried to spend the day together but both had to work. They eventually found time to have a picnic on the wharf.
She returned from visiting a sick aunt in the city to find Chris in a depressed mood, having accidentally poisoned Leah with a risotto made with wild mushrooms, and helped him arrange a meeting to find a donor for her if she needed a transplant. When she returned from another family visit, Chris arranged to cook her a meal at his place. They spent the night together for the first time and she told him she was falling in love with him, only to be left upset when he suggested they take a step back. When the boat John had bought Jett for his birthday needed repairs, Denny did a deal with Jett where he could do odd jobs to pay for her work. This brought her into contact with Casey for the first time and, when she found out Chris was pretending to be ill to avoid her, she spent time with Casey instead. Chris began making increasingly outrageous attempts to get her attention but Casey and Spencer convinced her to speak with him. He showed his commitment to her by jumping into the sea and wrecking his little black book; Denny jumped in after him and kissed him.
Denny had a go at Sasha for printing Oscar’s confession to running over Tamara and was annoyed when Chris refused to take her side but accepted it when Casey spoke up for the pair and Chris explained Sasha was like family to him, while Oscar refused to let her accompany him to court. However, when she and Chris were meant to be spending time alone together she invited Casey to join them. With Spencer having invited Evelyn to a party, Denny convinced Chris to accompany them on a double date. When it was clear they were getting on well, she and Chris sneaked off to the Diner to re-consummate. However, when Chris was busy working, she went round Casey’s place with a pizza. She comforted Casey when Kyle was in hospital, prompting Chris to accuse Casey of having feelings for Denny and Casey to punch him. Although she looked after Chris, she didn’t believe his claims but Casey suggested they take a step back. Casey approached her at the gym and told her he wanted to be with her. She was annoyed and, despite admitting to Evelyn that she had feelings for him, told him they could only be friends. She admitted she wasn’t sure if she and Chris were compatible and turned him away when he turned up during a girls’ night with Hannah and Evelyn.
She went to the Diner to proposition Chris to try and get her mind off Casey but he told her he was busy with work. Casey then came up to her on the beach and kissed her, saying he wanted to know what it was like. She stood Chris up when he organised a romantic dinner for them in order to advise Evelyn on her feelings for Josh, earning herself a telling off from Spencer. She admitted to Chris that she had feelings for Casey and he broke up with her. She later went round to see Chris and offered to get back with him but she refused. She then admitted her feelings to Casey but told him she wanted to take things slowly. She accompanied Oscar to a boot camp when she heard Casey was taking it with Spencer. After she and Casey were awkward around each other during the session, she went to his house and kissed him. She invited Casey over for dinner which turned into a double date with Hannah and Andy. After a lengthy goodbye kiss, Casey ended up sleeping in his car after leaving his keys inside, telling Denny if he’d seen her again he wouldn’t have been able to resist staying the night.
Casey kept sending her away when she came to the house and pretending they weren’t together when Brax was around. Denny was angry he wouldn’t let her near his family and finished with him. Casey told her he was trying to keep her away from his family’s craziness and, after talking it over with Evelyn, she cleared the gym by posing as an SES member, then dragged Casey into the office for some alone time. When Casey rang her upset after hearing about the abuse Brax and Heath suffered as kids, Denny invited him to go camping with her. He tried to cancel after an argument with Brax but when she said she’d go on her own he went with her. She was reluctant to let Casey help her with a plaster when she cut her thumb and admitted she’d got used to managing on her own. They then spent the night together. When they got back though, Casey reverted to sending her away from the house while he dealt with Heath possibly losing his children, and Denny refused to talk to him when he turned up at the bait shop. Ricky tried pleading his case but when Denny turned up at the house to find Casey joking around with Kyle and Phoebe she was even more hurt that he wouldn’t let her be a part of it. Casey agreed to involve her.
She was bitter towards Andy when Zac moved out after Hannah thought Andy’s drugs were his, and disappointed when Casey continued to support Andy even after she’d told him. She accepted his need to protect Josh but was even more disappointed when she learned Hannah was still seeing Andy. Chris suggested they have dinner together; she enjoyed the evening but as he was leaving he kissed her and she threw him out, before worrying about Casey finding out. She was jealous when she saw Casey spending time with Maddy, especially when she found out they had history, but when Casey also found out about Chris kissing her they cleared the air. With Andy being threatened by dealers, Denny ended up hiding out at the farmhouse with Hannah, Evelyn, Josh and Casey. She then hid out at the Braxtons’ when someone sent a dead possom to the farm. While she and Casey were at the gym, Cody Dalton and two henchmen appeared and attacked Casey. Denny sent Brax a text message but that was what Cody wanted, luring him away so they could kidnap Josh and Evelyn, who were released when Andy paid his debts.
She and Evelyn helped Josh and Casey bond by arranging for the four of them to spend the evening together but when Denny and Casey disappeared off to bed afterwards Evelyn admitted she was worried about the fact she wasn’t ready to sleep with Josh. Denny took part in a bridal boot camp Casey was running where Roo joked about them being the next to get married; Casey told her they would one day. She acted as Phoebe’s chaperone when she went away to a gig and on their return they organised a second hands clothes stall for Matt and Sasha’s market fundraiser. She helped Casey get together an outfit for Josh to accompany Evelyn to the school formal and, when she admitted she had missed her own formal when her grandmother died, Casey put on a private event for the two of them in Angelo’s. Casey had hid the fact Andy was still dealing from her so the first she heard was when, just as she and Casey were about to leave on a romantic getaway, Casey dashed off with Andy to rescue Josh from Jake Pirovic. Not understanding the significance, Denny went and told Brax, who raced off after them. She was then devastated by the news that Casey had been shot and killed.
She tried to throw herself into work but was distressed by people trying to talk to her about Casey, until Sophie told her about her brother being killed in a car accident. She attended the funeral alone, then collapsed at the wake after Ricky gave her an album filled with photos of her and Casey, and spent a night in hospital with dehydration. She admitted to Alf that the bait shop was the only place she didn’t think of Casey but later told Ricky that she’d always refused to go surfing with him and wasn’t going to be afraid to try anything anymore. She realised Hannah was attracted to Nate and accompanied her to a party Nate and Sophie were holding. She heard someone had killed Jake by turning off his life support and hoped it wasn’t Brax, before advising Evelyn on the rift between her and Josh. Brax gave her an engagement ring he had found in Casey’s bag from the trip and she admitted to Evelyn that if he’d asked her she would have said yes. When Brax, Nate and VJ went missing in the bush, it brought back memories for Denny of waiting for news of Casey. She went to Casey’s grave but left without saying anything when she saw Brax there and gave the engagement ring back to Ricky. Ricky taught her to surf and convinced her to take the ring back, saying they considered her part of the family.
She gave advice to Evelyn on getting back with Josh but when she learned Maddy was pregnant with Josh’s baby she convinced Evelyn to walk away from the situation. She invited Sasha, Phoebe and Chris over to cheer her up and felt strange when she laughed for the first time since Casey died. Evelyn convinced her to accompany Sasha to a uni open day to look into courses. Shortly after she returned, she learned Oscar might be the father of Maddy’s baby. Evelyn wanted to tell Josh while Oscar was willing to keep quiet if that was what Maddy wanted; Denny advised Evelyn to stay out of it but reminded Oscar she had grown up knowing their father wasn’t interested in her. In the end, it turned out Maddy wasn’t pregnant. Chris tried to get her to keep an eye on Spencer while he was away but she misunderstood and thought he was trying to set her and Spencer up, angrily pushing him off the wharf. When she learned record producer Neive Devlin needed the rights to one of Kyle’s songs to release Phoebe’s single, Denny had a go at Kyle and told him to help her.
She was concerned when Hannah admitted she still had feelings for Andy, and when Andy asked her about Hannah she told him she wasn’t interested. Hannah had a go at her when she found out but Denny reminded her of all the trouble he had brought to the family. After a conversation with Ricky about failing to stop their partners walking into trouble, she put away the engagement ring. She was annoyed when Ash treated her as a helpless female by offering to fix her car, but when she learned Brax had warned him off her she asked him to help. She found herself attracted to him so started wearing the engagement ring. After Ash saw her wearing it, Brax told her to move on when she was ready but she admitted she wasn’t sure when that would be. She decided to go on on a trip to Phoebe’s launch party but was thrown to learn Ash was already there. Shortly after, the bus that she and the rest of the party were travelling in crashed.
Denny suffered only minor injuries. She was unhappy with Andy hanging around Hannah while she was in hospital, but when she found Hannah upset Hannah admitted she’d been told she might never walk again. Although Hannah wanted it kept quiet, Denny insisted on telling Evelyn. She felt Hannah was better off in hospital and was furious when Andy not only talked Nate into letting her come home but moved himself in to look after her. However, when both Oscar and Phoebe supported the decision and insisted Andy was trying to make up for his past, she decided to leave them to it and go and stay with her mother for a bit.
She tried to talk to Andy on her return but kept being interrupted. She was left as Hannah’s primary carer when Andy moved out and was unable to help her when she had a fall. She tried to get Andy to return, then tried to get Hannah to go back to hospital; in the end, Andy came back. She supported Ricky after Brax was sent to jail and, at Ash’s request, took her away so she wouldn’t find out about Phoebe being kidnapped by Ryan Kelly. After talking with John about moving on from the death of a loved one, she met Ash on the wharf and kissed him, only for him to walk away confused. She tried to confide in Ricky but Ricky blasted her for liking a criminal. She was pleased when Ash asked her out for lunch, and took off her engagement ring, only for him to change his mind and say he just wanted to be friends. She parked herself in Angelo’s and refused to leave unless he spoke to her. He eventually admitted that Brax and Ricky had warned him off her and he’d never had a proper relationship.
They spent time together and he offered to take her surfing but it brought back too many memories of Casey and when she tried she ended up running off. She went to work at the boat shed on her day off and ignored Ash’s calls but he eventually convinced her to keep trying. They slept together after spending the day together, but Denny was left distressed afterwards. She slipped away the next morning, having mixed feelings about moving on from Casey. Feeling she was messing Ash about, she broke up with him but after a chat with Hannah she agreed to stick with it. She found Ricky having contractions and helped her until Nate arrived. She was initially annoyed when she found out Ash was doing a run for Gunno in return for keeping Brax safe but realised he was just trying to look out for Ricky. She later got a message saying he’d gone away for a bit and Phoebe told her she thought Ash and Kyle were on another job. She confronted Ash on his return but he told her he had got back in touch with his sister Billie and had been with her. However, when Denny met Billie she said she hadn’t seen Ash since the previous week. Ash admitted he had been trying to stop Kyle doing a job; Denny was angry that he had lied to her and broke up with him.
Ash asked her to look in on Ricky, who was doubting her ability to be a mother. She spoke to Phoebe who decided they should throw a baby shower. Denny was supposed to bring Ricky there as a surprise but ended up letting it slip but getting her to come along anyway. When she heard that Ricky was in labour, she raced to the hospital and stayed by her side until Kyle arrived, after which she was left waiting for news with Ash. Kyle encouraged the pair to make up and they instinctively hugged each other on hearing Ricky had had a boy. She resisted the idea of getting back with him but changed her mind after chatting with Hannah and Billie. With Hannah attending a gig Phoebe was putting on, Denny convinced Ash to join her in accompanying her for their first date, and they ended up having to take Hannah home when she got drunk.
She agreed with Phoebe that Billie was manipulating Ash when she threatened to leave town and played peacemaker between Andy and Hannah when they had a falling out over her antics at the gig. She was bewildered when Ash suddenly broke up with her without explanation but Andy helped her work out her frustrations by bringing some boxing gloves home. She also helped with preparations for the surf carnival to distract herself, roping Evelyn and Oscar in to help as well. Hannah confided in her that she’d slept with Sean and Denny encouraged Andy to do something surprising for her. She comforted Ricky over Brax’s assumed death. Phoebe encouraged her to make up with Ash. She went to his caravan and slept with him but told him they had spoiled things by overthinking so should stay casual. However, she was disappointed when he stood her up.
She witnessed Ash and Phoebe nearly kiss and confronted Phoebe. Phoebe admitted she had feelings for Ash and Denny told Kyle, resulting in them breaking up. She was angry to find out Ash and Phoebe were back together and ended up shoving Phoebe, who hit her. She went out drinking with Kyle and stopped him picking up a random girl, admitting she’d hoped she and Ash would get back together. She and Hannah went out for the evening but ran into first Andy and Charlotte and then Ash and Phoebe. However, she ended up making up with Phoebe and inviting her and Kat to move in with them. When she found a positive pregnancy test, she suspected it was Hannah’s only to find that it was Phoebe’s. She attended a family meal to meet Zac’s previously unknown son Hunter.
When she met Roo’s new boyfriend James Edmunds, she felt she’d seen him before but he aggressively denied it. She eventually recalled she had seen him at a uni open day with his daughter, who he claimed was the daughter of a friend. While cleaning the Braxton house, she came across a note left behind by Billie revealing that Brax, who could have been a kidney donor for a critically ill Kyle, was still alive, and tried to get Ash to tell Ricky. However, when Ash was able to act as a donor and Denny realised Ricky was ready to move on with Nate, she tore up the note. She encouraged Hannah to tell Chris she liked him. She was the only person to remember the anniversary of Casey’s death and, realising she needed to move on, decided to go travelling. She held a dinner in memory of Casey where she announced her plans.
As part of a farewell, she went on a girls’ night out with Hannah, Phoebe, Ricky and Kat, but the night ended abruptly when Kat revealed Ricky had slept with Nate and threw a drink over her. She did the rounds saying goodbye to everyone and wondered who could take over the bait shop. Zac suggested Hunter and she went round to talk to him but instead found Charlotte and saw the safe stolen from the Diner, realising Hunter had stolen it and was thus responsible for the accident that had left Marilyn in a coma. She tried to grab the safe as proof but Charlotte pushed her away, causing her to hit her head and killing her. Unwilling to admit what had happened, Charlotte buried her and her belongings in a shallow grave.
Charlotte saw ghostly images of Denny for a few days afterwards but eventually dismissed them, since she believed she was going to get away with it. Denny’s body was found some months later after being uncovered by a storm.