Resident Evil is one of the gaming world's longest and most beloved series. The original Resident Evil was developed and published by Capcom in 1996, and it serves as Jill's and Chris's debut encounter with mutated humans, killer dogs, and giant sharks.
Over the years, RE has built up an enormous amount of lore about all of its playable characters. So much so that it's hard to remember everything. So here are the basic things to know – birth year, age, and height – about all the playable characters in the mainline Resident Evil series.
Updated on March 19, 2023, By Axel Bosso: With the upcoming launch of Resident Evil 4 Remake, we thought this article was worth revisiting. We have updated its format and style so you can keep learning more information about your favorite characters with fewer to no inaccuracies. Of course, Leon's and Ashley's profiles are here.
20 Jill Valentine
- Age: 23 (RE1 and RE3), 31 (RE5: Lost in Nightmares), 34 (RE5 and RE5: Desperate Escape)
- Height: 5'5"
- Birth Year: 1974
Jill Valentine is one of the first playable characters in the series, as one of the two protagonists of the original Resident Evil. She starts out as a member of the Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) of the Raccoon City Police Department, before joining the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA).
Jill is a classic badass with a heart of gold, who won't hesitate to sacrifice herself to protect those she cares about. Despite standing up to brutal RE bosses in all its many forms, Jill stands only at 5'5" tall; furthermore, she's only 23 years old on that fateful day when she first sets foot in that Raccoon City mansion.
19 Chris Redfield
- Age: 25 (RE1), 33 (RE5: Lost In Nightmares), 35 (RE5), 40 (RE6), 44 (RE7), 48 (RE Village)
- Height: 6'1"
- Birth Year: 1973
The "other" original protagonist, Chris Redfield is another former member of S.T.A.R.S. and founder of BSAA. Chris is a strong-willed and skilled fighter, as well as a mentor who will fight to protect his younger partners.
Chris is a strong but flawed character, descending into alcoholism mid-way through the series. With his birth date somewhere in 1973, he has spent over half his life battling monstrous mutants.
18 Claire Redfield
- Age: 19 (RE2)
- Height: 5'6"
- Birth Year: 1979
Claire Redfield first appears in Resident Evil 2 as a 19-year-old motorcycle-riding college student. She's the younger sister of BSAA member Chris Redfield and enters the RE world on a mission to find him in Raccoon City.
Claire may be quieter than her older brother, but she's tough as nails. She devotes her life to fighting bioterrorism by joining TerraSave later in the series.
17 Leon S. Kennedy
- Age: 21 (RE2), 27 (RE4), 36 (RE6)
- Height: 5'10"
- Birth Year: 1977
Leon is arguably the most beloved of the main characters in the RE franchise, and it's not hard to see why (it's obviously the hair). He first appears in RE2 as a rookie cop who joins up with Claire to fight the zombie horde.
Like many of the RE characters, Leon's first experiences with the undying comes while in the bloom of youth – he's just 21 when he first starts taking down zombies.
16 Rebecca Chambers
- Age: 18 (RE0 and RE1)
- Height: 5'3"
- Birth Year: 1980
Rebecca Chambers is among the youngest and shortest playable characters in the series. She appears in the original Resident Evil as part of the beta team for S.T.A.R.S. but is only playable for a brief period. However, she takes center stage in 2002's Resident Evil Zero, the prequel to the first game.
Of the facts known about Rebecca, what is certain is that, while she's not the greatest fighter, being small and young hasn't hampered her usefulness. She acts as a medic for her first S.T.A.R.S. mission at the tender age of 18 and eventually goes on to become a doctor.
15 Billy Cohen
- Age: 25 (RE0)
- Height: 5'9"
- Birth Year: 1972
Billy Coen first appears as a playable character in Resident Evil Zero, along with Rebecca Chambers. He was once a former US Marine, but by the time he meets up with Rebecca and comes into the RE story, he is a criminal facing a tough sentence for his war crimes.
Billy is gruff and prickly, probably owing to the fact that he's innocent of his crimes. Billy has been MIA since RE0, but just in case, his plotline is one of those oft-forgotten ones that are worth remembering.
14 Carlos Oliveira
- Age: 21 (RE3)
- Height: 5'9"
- Birth Year: 1977
Carlos Oliveira is briefly playable in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis alongside Jill Valentine. He has an important role in the story, as a member of Umbrella Pharmaceutical's clean-up crew.
Since his glow-up reappearance in the Resident Evil 3 remake, Carlos has become a favorite within the RE fanbase. In fact, many fans would like to see him return at some point.
13 Ashley Graham
- Age: 20 (RE4)
- Height: Around 5'3"
- Birth Year: 1984
Leon serves as the main protagonist of RE4, but he isn't the only playable character in the story. You also briefly control the girl the hero is trying to save. Unfortunately, Ashley doesn't quite have the strength or skill of Leon.
As a result, the 20-year-old has to use her wits to survive without her protector. There's no concrete information regarding the woman's height. Yet, she's visibly several inches shorter than Leon, so anything around 5'3" looks to be accurate.
12 Sheva Alomar
- Age: 23 (RE5)
- Height: 5'5"
- Birth Year: 1986
Sheva Alomar is a playable character who appears only in Resident Evil 5 - the first in the mainline series of the RE games to be a co-op game.
She is a BSAA member who was born and raised in West Africa where she is ultimately dispatched to deal with an outbreak, alongside Chris Redfield. Sheva is tough, whip-smart, and unshakeable, owing to her difficult youth which set her up to thrive on the hunt for the Uroboros.
11 Josh Stone
- Age: 35 (RE5)
- Height: 6'1"
- Birth Year: 1974
Taking down Wesker's operation in Resident Evil 5 is mainly a two-person job as Chris and Sheva do much of the heavy lifting. Occasionally, though, Josh Stone lends them a hand as a supporting character. And the man becomes playable during the Desperate Escape DLC. In it, he assists Jill in getting to safety.
Not a lot is known about the character besides that he was on the same team as Sheva at one time. But the Mercenaries Reunion mode gives you some details about the man, including his age and height.
10 Jake Muller
- Age: 20 (RE6)
- Height: 6'3"
- Birth Year: 1992
Jake Muller is one of the more interesting protagonists of the Resident Evil series. He first appears in the much-maligned Resident Evil 6 as one of the many playable characters in that game.
Jake is a mercenary raised in the fictional eastern European country of Edonia. Fighting alongside Sherry Birkin, it soon emerges that he is the son of a powerful villain from the original Resident Evil. Despite RE6 being underwhelming to fans, he is arguably one of the strongest protagonists in the series.
9 Ada Wong
- Age: 24 (RE2), 30 (RE4), 39 (RE6)
- Height: 5'7"
- Birth Year: 1974
Ada Wong is a spy who first appears in Resident Evil 2. For all that is known of her through the series, much is also shrouded in mystery.
Powerful and always in control, Ada's allegiances are unclear and unstable at best, making her one of the more interesting protagonists in the series. Ada is playable in both RE2 and RE4 but doesn't become a true protagonist until Resident Evil 6. As a result, she's one of the oldest protagonists in the series history at 39-years-old.
8 Helena Harper
- Age: 24 (RE6)
- Height: 5'7"
- Birth Year: 1989
Helena Harper is a US Secret Service agent who teams up with Leon Kennedy as a playable character in Resident Evil 6.
Helena is a relatively newer character in the franchise and hasn't reappeared yet in the mainline story, but there are many interesting facts about her in RE6 for the discerning fan. She's a tragic figure, who spends RE6 being manipulated by a shady organization known as The Family.
7 Piers Nivens
- Age: 26 (RE6)
- Height: 5'10"
- Birth Year: 1987
Piers Nivans is a BSAA agent who partners with Chris Redfield in Resident Evil 6. Piers appears in RE material outside of the mainline game series, but he is playable in RE6.
Piers later rescues Chris from his spiraling alcoholism and memory loss by tracking him to a bar in Edonia and reminding him of his teammates and mission with the BSAA. He is tragically infected with a version of the virus on a later mission and sacrifices himself to save Chris.
6 Sherry Birkin
- Age: 12 (RE2) and 26 (RE6)
- Height: 5'4" (RE6 - her height in RE2 is unclear)
- Birth Year: 1986
Sherry Birkin originally appears in Resident Evil 2 as a young child whose parents were both scientists employed in the original RE mansion laboratory. After her parents are both infected and die, Sherry is rescued and cared for by Claire and Leon.
You play as her in a couple of segments during RE2, and she becomes a full protagonist in RE6. Sherry's time with Claire in RE2 means that much is known about her backstory. Although she was infected with the G-virus as a child, she recovers and boasts a unique ability to regenerate.
5 Ethan Winters
- Age: 33 (RE7) and 37 (RE Village)
- Height: 5'11"
- Birth Year: 1984
Ethan Winters is an engineer whose wife, Mia, worked for a bioweapons lab before she was abducted by a human mutant weapon she was transporting. Ethan is introduced as a new playable character in Resident Evil 7 as he searches for his wife.
Ethan has no backstory relating to the other characters in the mainline story, at least until he is eventually rescued by Chris Redfield. This ends up being an essential bridge for both protagonists come Resident Evil Village, where Ethan and Chris serve as the main playable characters.
4 Mia Winters
- Age: 32 (RE7) and 36 (RE Village)
- Height: 5'7"
- Birth Year: 1984
While Ethan is the main character of Resident Evil 7, you briefly take control of Mia after escaping the Baker Estate. In an important role reversal, Mia goes from being saved by Ethan to saving her husband from Eveline's grasp.
Mia isn't playable for too long – only through the Wrecked Ship – but this is RE7's way of showing that Mia and Ethan are on equal footing. Considering how little focus their marriage and relationship get during the story, this is the game's way of showing that both characters care about each other enough to risk their lives without a second thought.
3 Clancy Jarvis
- Age: 35 (RE7)
- Height: Around 5'11"
- Birth Year: 1982
The Sewers Gators' cameraman, Clancy is playable during a few key flashbacks in Resident Evil 7. Not just that, he goes on to be the main character of several prequel DLC that detail everything that happened to him between getting caught by Jack and eventually being burned alive by Lucas.
It's worth pointing out is that Clancy does not have a canonical height, but his in-game model seems to line up with Ethan's 1:1, suggesting that he's roughly 5'11". However, he's clearly less skilled than Winters and arguably has fewer survival skills than any of the series' main characters.
2 Zoe Baker
- Age: 23 (RE7)
- Height: 5'7"
- Birth Year: 1994
One of the youngest playable characters in the franchise, Zoe is the protagonist of Resident Evil 7's Sisters DLC – a short story-based expansion pack that details what happened to the Baker family on the night of their infection. Zoe has virtually no combative abilities, but is an important character in the context of RE7's story.
She actively helps Ethan get out of the Baker Estate while also crafting the serum that cures Mia and briefly defeats Jack. If the Resident Evil 7 Demos are considered canon then Zoe has actually been helping other victims get out of years. That said, she fails every one of them except Ethan.
1 Joe Baker
- Age: Around 58 (RE7)
- Height: Around 6'0"
- Birth Year: 1950s
The main character of End of Zoe and Jack Baker's brother, it's very important to keep in mind that no canonical information exists regarding Joe's birthday or height. That said, he is canonically Jack's older brother which means he's at least 58 years old and was born in the 1950s.
Joe is also roughly the same height as Jack – if not taller – which puts him at a minimum of 6'0," making him one of the tallest people in the series. Unlike other main characters who use firearms, Joe punches his way through Molded with little concern. He might very well be the single most physically strong character in Resident Evil. And this is a series where Chris punched a boulder apart.