Kris Fisher is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Gerard McCarthy. The character first appeared on-screen in September 2006 and left in August 2010 after McCarthy quit the show. He is noted for his storylines involving the PEP treatment, a bisexual love triangle, his outlandish personality and being the only permanent cross dressing character in a British soap opera. Following his departure, it was announced that McCarthy would return in November 2010 for a short stint.

The character was created as one of four new students to be introduced into the series in 2006. At the time of creation the then producer of the series, Bryan Kirkwood described the character to actor Gerard McCarthy as "A cross between Pete Doherty, Pete Burns and Pete Bennett from Big Brother — a bit of a Boy George character." The character was initially intended for a 12 episode stint, but after the producer saw how popular he was with viewers they decided to make him a permanent character.

Auditions were held for the part of Kris with actor Gerard McCarthy hailing from Belfast, Northern Ireland going onto secure the part. McCarthy had wanted a role in the show because actor Shaun Williamson had advised him to get a part to boost his profile. After initial screen tests with casting directors he was called in to meet Bryan Kirkwood who gave McCarthy the outline of the character and later he was contracted with the show long-term.

McCarthy considered leaving the series by Christmas 2008, but producers asked him to stay on to help portray a HIV storyline involving his on-screen brother. In early 2009 speculation came from magazines that he was about to quit the series after McCarthy's statement of his character saying: "There comes a time when every character reaches a point when it's natural and believable for them to leave. I think Kris's end should be this summer after he graduates." McCarthy went on to confirm his plans to quit the series stating he wanted to do different projects. However, in mid-2009 McCarthy revealed he had signed another year-long contract with the show because he loves playing his part.

Channel 4 publicity describes Kris as a feisty male. His feisty persona is prominent in the character's scenes, now and again a softer side to the character emerges. This softer side is often most played out on-screen in scenes involving the character's brother. McCarthy spoke about how is character put his guard up around characters other than his brother, Malachy. Malachy refers to Kris as Francis still and he also said: "For a long while, Kris was just this enigma that refused to be labelled. So to have his brother around - who knows exactly who he is and knows exactly why he is - just works. You see the real side of Kris when Malachy's around, as opposed to the 'performance' he puts on with others. He's like a Jekyll and Hyde character. When he's behind closed doors, he thinks he's 'safe'."

In 2009 McCarthy said of his character: "He is so 'out there', in your face and ready to shock at every turn. Every day he creates a new drama so who knows what the unconventional Kris will trigger." Discussing his character at length with The Belfast Telegraph he said "Kris is a non-conformist. If he wakes up in the morning and wants to dye his hair blue and stick a safety pin through his nose, then that's exactly what he'll do. The character is very colourful, but also very controversial". Going on to say: "He is what he is, a bolshy, ballsy lad from Belfast who doesn't give a damn. He doesn't care what people think about him. He goes out of his way to shock people and has so much confidence in himself, that no one can intimidate him. He's also very witty. I can be funny yeah, but I'm not quite as sharp as him. And of course, he can pull anyone he wants! I love Kris, he's a great character to play. When I come home from work every day, I have a smile on my face."

Kris' appearance has been a focal point of the character. At the time of auditioning for the role McCarthy perceived Kris' look to be gothic, but the casting team revealed that his look was to be aimed at provoking a reaction rather than a drag queen look, a mixture of celebrity styles taken from both Eddie Izzard or Russell Brand. McCarthy has also stated on one occasion that he doesn't believe his character is trying to cross dress or be a transvestite and rather simply creating his own unique style. McCarthy also helps to style Kris by trying to balance his look by using feminine parts along with other traditionally masculine items in the outfit. The Liverpool Echo have also commented that dark eyeliner is the character's trademark.

One particular item of the character's wardrobe caused controversy when on-screen he wore an LGBT campaign T-shirt. Off-screen Stonewall, a lesbian, gay and bisexual rights charity organisation, told The Guardian newspaper it had managed to get a character from the soap to wear their campaign T-shirt. The scenes drew criticism from an extremist Christian group claiming that soap operas are being 'lobbied' into pushing a politically correct view of modern Britain into their shows. Gary Nunn of Stonewall defended the scenes stating: "One of our key priorities is to promote fair coverage of lesbian and gay people in the media and we work with programme makers to reflect this, a recent example of this is our work with Hollyoaks where the character Kris Fisher wore a T-shirt with our campaign slogan: 'Some people are gay. Get over it!'."