Identification of mechanisms of resistance to histone deacetylase inhibitors, such as vorinostat, is important in order to utilise these anticancer compounds more efficiently in the clinic. Here, we present a dataset containing multiple tiers of stringent siRNA screening for genes that when knocked down conferred sensitivity to vorinostat-induced cell death. We also present data from a miRNA overexpression screen for miRNAs contributing to vorinostat sensitivity. Furthermore, we provide transcriptomic analysis using massively parallel sequencing upon knockdown of 14 validated vorinostat-resistance genes. These datasets are suitable for analysis of genes and miRNAs involved in cell death in the presence and absence of vorinostat as well as computational biology approaches to identify gene regulatory networks.