Jill Valentine
is a character in Resident Evil, a survival horror series created by the Japanese company Capcom. She was introduced as one of two player characters in the original Resident Evil with her partner, Chris Redfield, as a member of the Raccoon City Police Department's Special Tactics And Rescue Service unit. Jill and Chris fight the Umbrella Corporation, a pharmaceutical company whose bioterrorism creates zombies and other bio-organic weapons, and later become founding members of the United Nations' Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance.
Jill is the protagonist of several Resident Evil games, novelizations and films and has appeared in other game franchises, including Marvel vs. Capcom, Project X Zone, Teppen, and Dead by Daylight. In later games, such as the 2002 Resident Evil remake, The Umbrella Chronicles, Resident Evil 5, and The Mercenaries 3D, her features were based on Canadian model and actress Julia Voth. Several actresses have portrayed Jill, including Sienna Guillory and Hannah John-Kamen in the live-action Resident Evil films.
Video game publications described Jill as among the most popular and iconic video game characters, and praised her as the most likable and consistent Resident Evil character. She has received acclaim and criticism with regard to gender representation in video games. Several publications praised the series for its portrayal of women, and considered Jill significantly less sexualized than other female game characters; she was also cited as an example of a female character who was as competent as her male counterparts. Others said that she was weakened as a protagonist by attributes which undermined her role as a heroinespecifically, an unrealistic body shape which did not reflect her military background. Some of Jill's overtly-sexualized costumes have also been criticized.
Concept and design
Jill was introduced as one of two playable protagonists with her partner, Chris Redfield, in Capcom's 1996 survival horror video game Resident Evil. She was created by director Shinji Mikami and designer Isao Ohishi. To avoid the sexual objectification of women in video games, Mikami refused to eroticize or depict women as submissive in Resident Evil; Jill was characterized as independent. In 2025, director Hideki Kamiya stated that he took the name "Jill" from one of his reference books, and the name "Valentine" was chosen randomly after he heard someone say Valentine's Day.Of Japanese and French descent, she excelled at bomb disposal during her training with Delta Force and later joined the Special Tactics and Rescue Service special operations unit. Experienced with weapons, explosives and lock picking, she was intelligent, brave, and loyal. Although their storylines progress in "the same general direction", the gameplay differs for Jill and Chris; her inventory is larger and she has a lock-pick, giving her early access to more health and ammunition. Based on these differences, Jill was recommended for first-time players of Resident Evil. Game designer Jun Takeuchi gave each character a unique clothing style to make them instantly recognisable, with Jill's character wearing a distinctive blue beret.
According to digital media scholar Esther MacCallum-Stewart, Mikami's female characters possess unique qualities and Resident Evil 5. Resident Evil 5 has Chris as a protagonist, and its designers opted to focus on how both characters had aged since the original game. Jill underwent another redesign for Resident Evil 5 to reflect her status as a test subject in biological research experiments. Depicted with blonde hair, pale skin, and a tight-fitting outfitdescribed as a battle suither changes represent the effects of the experiments. Fans criticized the new appearance as an example of whitewashing. MacCallum-Stewart suggested that the series' popularity was damaged by the unexplained reappearance of Jill as a "mind-controlled BDSM assassin". In the 2020 remake of Resident Evil 3, the character is based on Russian model Sasha Zotova. Jill's redesign reflects the developers' vision behind her reimagination as an action hero; because the art direction for the remake is based on photorealism, Capcom wanted to ensure that Jill fit into the game-world environment.
Alternate costumes as rewards for players have been a staple of the Resident Evil series. Completing the 2002 remake unlocked the ability to dress Jill in her Resident Evil 3: Nemesis miniskirt costume and as Sarah Connor in the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The miniskirt was added during development at the staff's request; developers changed camera angles to reduce upskirting, matching the colors of the skirt and underwear to make any upskirting less obvious. The outfit reappeared in Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D. A prequel to the events of Resident Evil 5, the downloadable content episode Lost in Nightmares includes an alternative outfit for Jill which was based on military clothing and sportswear. Since Resident Evil: Revelations was set at sea, her costume resembled a wetsuit. The initial design featured more tactical gear attached to her buoyancy control device, but it was removed to highlight her physical contours. Her alternate outfit in the game, a revealing pirate costume, was colorful to contrast with the storyline's dark themes.
Voice-over and live-action actresses
The actresses who appeared in the original game's live-action cutscenes and recorded the voice work were credited only by their first names; Jill was played by "Inezh", a high school student. Voice actresses who played Jill included Catherine Disher in Resident Evil 3, Heidi Anderson in the 2002 remake, Kathleen Barr in Capcom's 2004 action-adventure game Under the Skin, and Tara Platt in Pachislot Biohazard. Patricia Ja Lee provided the voice and motion capture for The Umbrella Chronicles and Resident Evil 5. Kari Wahlgren voiced the character in the 2011 game Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Jill was voiced in Revelations by Michelle Ruff, who returned for the non-canon game Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. Nicole Tompkins voiced and provided motion capture for Jill in the 2020 Resident Evil 3 remake, and reprised her role in the CG animated film Resident Evil: Death Island. Atsuko Yuya voiced Jill in the Japanese versions of the games.The character appeared in three entries of the original Resident Evil film series, where she was played by English actress Sienna Guillory. Hannah John-Kamen played the role in the 2021 film, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.
Appearances
In the ''Resident Evil'' series
Each game in the series is set in the fictional American metropolis of Raccoon City until its destruction at the end of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Subsequent games with Jill are set in Russia Africa, and on the Mediterranean Sea. The original game is set in July 1998 in a mansion on the outskirts of Raccoon City, which Jill and her team enter while searching for their colleagues. Working with partner Barry Burton, she discovers that the mansion is a façade for a biological warfare laboratory operated by the Umbrella Corporation; its undead occupants are scientists who developed the T-virus mutagen. Her commander, Albert Wesker, is a double agent for Umbrella. Jill and Chris are among five survivors of the incident, who form a strong friendship and become passionate opponents of bioterrorism.Jill did not appear in Resident Evil 2, as the production team used new protagonists to preserve the original game's horror elements; Mikami thought that Jill and Chris would be too experienced to be frightened by the sequel's events. She returned as the sole protagonist in Resident Evil 3. Mikami – the lead producer of Nemesis and the concurrently-produced Resident Evil – Code: Veronica – wanted each game to highlight a female character who had previously appeared in the series; Jill is the protagonist in Nemesis, and Claire is the lead character in Code: Veronica. Observers suggested that these decisions were made as a result of the success of the Tomb Raider series, with Lara Croft as the protagonist.
Nemesis is set two months after the first game, when Jill joins the Raccoon City Police Department to protect as many civilians as possible from the T-virus. The reason given by Capcom for her informal clothing in this entry was her resignation from the police immediately before the city was infected with the virus. Jill quit in protest over the failure of law enforcement to take action against Umbrella, but remained in the city to investigate the corporation. The police uniform she wore in the original game was replaced with a less-formal blue tube top, black miniskirt, and knee-high boots.
In Nemesis, Jill escapes Raccoon City before its destruction by a nuclear strike as part of a U.S. government cover-up. She is pursued by Nemesis, a supersoldier tasked with killing the remaining S.T.A.R.S. team members. Instead of killing Jill, Nemesis infects her with the T-virus; her new partner, Carlos Oliveira – a former Umbrella mercenary – cures her of the infection with an Umbrella-produced vaccine. The Umbrella Chronicles is set in 2003, when Jill and Chris join a private organization to expose Umbrella's biological-warfare activities. After the fall of the corporation, Jill and Carlos become founding members of the United Nations' Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance. In Revelations – set two years later – Jill and new partner Parker Luciani are sent to rescue Chris, who is allegedly being held hostage on a ghost ship in the Mediterranean. Once aboard, she discovers that the ship is infested with a new type of mutagen capable of infecting the aquatic ecosystem. Jill and Chris unravel a political conspiracy involving an earlier mutagenic outbreak and a botched investigation by a rival agency.
Resident Evil 5 takes place in 2009 in the fictional African town of Kijuju, where terrorists are turning local residents into zombies. One of these terrorists is Jill, who was missing in action for the previous two-and-a-half years. Set in 2006, the Lost in Nightmares DLC has Jill and Chris searching a mansion for Umbrella's founder; to save Chris from Wesker, Jill tackles Wesker through a window. Neither body is recovered, and Jill is declared dead. She was actually injured by the fall and taken hostage by Wesker, who then uses her as a test subject in his biological experiments. The antibodies produced by Jill's system as a result of her Nemesis-era T-virus infection are the basis for the Uroboros Virus, the catalyst for the events of Resident Evil 5.
During Resident Evil 5, Chris discovers that Jill is alive; Wesker attached a mind-control device to her which forces her to commit terrorist acts and fight Chris and his new partner, local BSAA agent Sheva Alomar. Jill has enough self-control to open her outfit so the device can be seen and removed. After its removal, she explains that she knew what she was doing but was unable to control her actions and urges Chris and Sheva to continue their mission. Another DLC episode, Desperate Escape, describes how Jill escaped safely with the help of local BSAA agent Josh Stone before they help Chris and Sheva kill Wesker.