Resident Evil Requiem introduces one of the most compelling new protagonists in the series’ nearly thirty-year history. Grace Ashcroft steps into the spotlight as the primary playable character in Resident Evil Requiem (RE9), and her story weaves together decades of lore in a way that will reward long-time fans while welcoming newcomers at the same time. Here is everything you need to know about Grace Ashcroft, including her backstory, her connection to the broader Resident Evil universe, her voice actor, and the role she plays throughout the game.
Who Is Grace Ashcroft in Resident Evil Requiem?
Grace Ashcroft is the new main character of Resident Evil Requiem and the game’s primary playable protagonist. She works as a technical analyst for the FBI, which immediately sets her apart from the trained military operatives and hardened secret agents the series has traditionally placed front and centre.
Grace is analytical, introverted, and carries unresolved traumas from her past. Unlike Chris Redfield, who trained with the United States Air Force and served in the Special Tactics and Rescue Service, or Leon S. Kennedy, who spent decades operating as a highly skilled government agent, Grace enters this world with far less combat experience and far more personal baggage. She is essentially a civilian analyst thrown headfirst into the most dangerous conspiracy in the Resident Evil universe. That contrast is deliberate, and it gives her story a different kind of tension than the series has offered before.
However, Grace is far from a random addition to the Resident Evil canon. Her last name carries enormous weight in the series’ lore, and Capcom placed it there entirely on purpose.
Grace Ashcroft’s Connection to Alyssa Ashcroft
Grace’s surname is not a coincidence. She is the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, a character who first appeared as a playable protagonist in Resident Evil Outbreak, a co-operative survival game released for PlayStation 2 in 2003. Alyssa was an investigative reporter and one of the few civilians who managed to escape Raccoon City alive during the 1998 T-virus outbreak.
Alyssa was not just a survivor. She actively worked to expose Umbrella Corporation’s crimes after the incident. During the outbreak, she reported on Umbrella-sponsored renovations at Raccoon University, uncovered the research being conducted there by Greg Mueller, recovered lost memories in an abandoned hospital, and helped destroy evidence of Umbrella’s illegal medical programme. Even after the city’s destruction, she continued to write about her experiences and publicly condemn Umbrella’s actions. An article written by Alyssa even appears as a discoverable document in Resident Evil 7, confirming that her survival and continued journalism remained part of the official Resident Evil timeline.
However, by the time Resident Evil Requiem begins, Alyssa is already dead, and has been for eight years. Her murder was witnessed by a young Grace, and that event becomes the emotional foundation of Grace’s entire story in the game.
How Did Alyssa Ashcroft Die?
The Gamescom 2025 Resident Evil Requiem reveal trailer shows the events that shaped Grace. Alyssa’s relentless investigation eventually led her to the Wrenwood Hotel, where she arrived alongside her daughter Grace. After a mysterious phone call to their hotel room asking for Miss Ashcroft, the electricity cut out. The pair attempted to escape, encountered the hotel manager, and then witnessed a hooded figure emerge and murder the manager. Despite making it to another part of the hotel, Alyssa was killed off-screen, and Grace watched it happen.
That night, and that hotel, form the starting point for everything Grace carries into Resident Evil Requiem.
What Is Grace Ashcroft’s Role in Resident Evil Requiem?
Eight years after her mother’s murder, Grace now works as a technical analyst for the FBI. The story of Resident Evil Requiem pulls her back to the Wrenwood Hotel to investigate a series of strange deaths caused by an unidentified disease. Returning to the place where her mother died makes the mission deeply personal, and Grace must confront both the horrors in front of her and the unresolved grief she has carried since childhood.
Beyond the Wrenwood Hotel, Grace’s investigation draws her into the same vast conspiracy that consumed her mother, bringing her face to face with the legacy of the Umbrella Corporation and the ruins of Raccoon City itself. Resident Evil Requiem is set approximately thirty years after Raccoon City’s destruction, and Grace becomes the narrative bridge between this new chapter of the franchise and the unresolved mysteries of the past.
Grace also shares the playable protagonist role with Leon S. Kennedy, who returns in Resident Evil Requiem as a second playable character. Leon brings decades of combat experience and a personal connection to Raccoon City as well, as he was a rookie officer there on the night the outbreak began. Together, the two characters offer very different perspectives on the same world, which gives Resident Evil Requiem a gameplay dynamic the series has not quite explored before.
How Does Grace Ashcroft Compare to Past Resident Evil Protagonists?
Grace represents a significant shift in the kind of hero Resident Evil typically asks players to control. Here is how she compares to the series’ most prominent protagonists:
| Protagonist | Background | Combat Experience |
| Grace Ashcroft* | FBI Technical Analyst | Trained but limited; civilian mindset |
| Leon S. Kennedy | Government Secret Agent | Highly experienced; decades of field work |
| Chris Redfield | USAF trained; STARS and BSAA veteran | Elite soldier; decades of combat |
| Jill Valentine | STARS Alpha Team member | Highly trained; special operations background |
| Ethan Winters | Civilian engineer | No prior combat experience |
Grace’s closest comparison among past protagonists is arguably Ethan Winters from Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village. Like Ethan, she starts the game as someone thrust into an extraordinary situation without the combat pedigree of a Leon or Chris. However, where Ethan was defined largely by desperation, Grace brings analytical intelligence and investigative training to her role. She approaches problems through logic and deduction, which creates a different kind of tension when the situation around her stops being logical altogether.
Her introverted personality and unresolved trauma also mean that the horror in Resident Evil Requiem hits her differently than it would a seasoned soldier. Grace reacts to frightening environments the way players likely would, making her a more relatable lens through which to experience the game’s horror.
Who Voices Grace Ashcroft in Resident Evil Requiem?
Angela Sant’Albano provides the voice of Grace Ashcroft in Resident Evil Requiem. She also voices the children characters in the game, according to the full cast listing. The rest of the confirmed Resident Evil Requiem voice cast includes Nick Apostolides returning as Leon S. Kennedy, Craig Burnatowski as Zeno, Antony Byrne as Victor Gideon, Eden Riegel as Sherry Birkin, and Jane Perry as Alyssa Ashcroft.
What Does Grace Ashcroft Adds to the Resident Evil Universe?
Grace matters for several reasons that go beyond being a new face in the franchise.
First, her existence confirms that Resident Evil Outbreak is fully canon within the mainline series. Alyssa Ashcroft’s survival was first hinted at through a discoverable article in Resident Evil 7, but Grace’s role as the primary protagonist of Resident Evil Requiem makes Outbreak’s events directly relevant to the main story for the first time. This opens the door for the series to acknowledge other Outbreak survivors and events more explicitly going forward.
Second, Grace represents a deliberate return to the horror-first approach that defined the earliest Resident Evil games. Rather than leading with an elite soldier who feels comfortable in a firefight, Capcom built their protagonist around vulnerability, emotional depth, and relatability. That decision signals a tonal shift in the series that has resonated strongly with long-time fans ahead of the game’s release.
Third, Grace’s story closes the book on the Raccoon City saga by returning to its ruins, while simultaneously opening a new chapter for the franchise. Her DNA connects the past and the future of Resident Evil in a way that very few characters in the series have been positioned to do.
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