Grace Ashcroft
Video game character
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grace Ashcroft[a] is a character in Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan), a survival horror video game series created by the Japanese company Capcom. Grace made her first appearance in the 2026 video game Resident Evil Requiem as a playable character alongside Leon S. Kennedy. She is depicted as a technical analyst for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the daughter of investigative reporter and Raccoon City survivor Alyssa Ashcroft.
JA: Shihori Kanjiya[2]
| Grace Ashcroft | |
|---|---|
 Grace Ashcroft in Resident Evil Requiem (2026) | |
| First game | Resident Evil Requiem (2026) |
| Voiced by | EN: Angela Sant'Albano[1] JA: Shihori Kanjiya[2] |
| Motion capture | Angela Sant'Albano[1] |
Grace was designed to be a more timid, fearful protagonist to focus more on the survival horror aspect. She is voiced by Shihori Kanjiya in Japanese and Angela Sant'Albano in English. Grace has received a positive reception from video game publications, particularly due to her characterization and relatability.
Concept and design
Grace was introduced in Resident Evil Requiem (2026) to focus more on the survival horror aspect.[3] She was designed to be a more timid, fearful protagonist when compared to the protagonists of previous games, many of whom have military experience.[4] According to producer Masato Kumazawa, their aim was to deliver a gaming experience that alternately involves players in the "most terrifying horror and the most thrilling action." Kumazawa also stated, "therefore, "maximizing both the terror felt when transitioning from action to horror segments and the exhilaration experienced when shifting from horror to action segments. To this end, as Leon's counterpart, we introduced Grace, an easily frightened character who is experiencing a biohazard situation for the first time."[5] Director Koshi Nakanishi stated that the dual-protagonist structure of Requiem, in which players alternate between Leon S. Kennedy and Grace, was conceived to ensure the game would include slow-paced, horror-focused sections alongside faster-paced action sequences; this allowed the developers to show the differences in experience between Leon and Grace.[6] Nakanishi stated that Leon's sequences could give players a sense of release following Grace's chapters.[6] Nakanishi also described that Grace is "the biggest scaredy-cat in Resident Evil history" and stated that they wanted her gameplay in Requiem to highlight on how she have been influenced by his experience in dealing with horrific creatures.[6][7]
When being pursued by a stalking monster, Grace will visibly stumble in third-person.[8] Reflecting her timid and fearful nature, Grace has animations such as shaking hands when handling and aiming firearms.[9] These panicked character animations for Grace align with the "final girl" trope in horror films.[10] The Requiem team had been working on improving Grace's hair rendering, but they could not achieve their desired visual quality. Development on the hair strand system for longer hair was led by the team working on Pragmata (2026) for that game's android character Diana alongside the RE Engine development team.[11] This work on Diana's hair rendering in Pragmata was later transferred to Requiem for Grace's hair.[12] The strand system allows luminescence to realistically shine through Grace's hair and her hair properly reacts in scenes where she is suspended upside down while strapped to a gurney.[12]
Grace was voiced by actress Shihori Kanjiya in Japanese and an American actress Angela Sant’Albano in English.[2][1] Playing the game with a real-life anxiety problem is the scariest the series has ever been, according to Angela, who claimed to have done "a lot of research" on panic disorders.[13] Sant'Albano acknowledges that no amount of preparation could have adequately prepared her for the liberating and overwhelming experience of performing Grace. She claims that resembling Grace's desperate, fight-or-flight physique was the most difficult part. Sant'Albano claims that as a younger actor, she is frequently cast in parts that are more similar to her own, thus she seldom gets the opportunity to portray someone who is so different from her. But Grace forced her into a new kind of physical storytelling, particularly in a mocap setting where she had to act out scenes in which Grace was in constant distress.[14]
Appearances
Resident Evil Requiem
Resident Evil Requiem begins with Grace Ashcroft working as a young technical analyst for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She is sent by her superior to investigate a mysterious rash of infections and deaths in Wrenwood, a city nearby to the remnants of Raccoon City. Grace investigates the latest death at the Wrenwood Hotel, where she is captured by Victor Gideon. Victor takes her to the Rhodes Hill Cronic Care Center, where he has overseen human experimentation and the creation of bioweapons. After freeing herself from her restraints, Grace discovers the care center overrun with bioweapons. She encounters Leon S. Kennedy, who is also investigating the mysterious infections as well as Victor Gideon, as well as Emily a young girl who was experimented on and is a clone. As she and Leon escape the care center, Emily is wounded and transforms into a bioweapon. Distraught, Grace willingly travels with Victor Gideon as well as the mysterious Zeno to the ruins of Raccoon City and the Umbrella Corporation's compound, the Ark.[15]
While there, it is revealed that Grace is the adopted daughter of Oswell E. Spencer, co-founder of the Umbrella Corporation. Later in his life, Oswell had regrets about the human experimentations he had ordered and took in Grace, who was orphaned as an infant, as atonement. Following his death, he gave guardianship of Grace to investigative reporter Alyssa Ashcroft. Victor Gideon mistakenly believed that Oswell had used Grace in his cloning experiments at the Raccoon City Orphanage and that Grace was the key to unlocking a bioweapon capable of mind control called Elpis. Pursuing Grace when she is a teenager, he tracks her and Alyssa to the Wrenwood Hotel, where he kills Alyssa while failing to capture Grace. Back in the Ark, Grace decides to release Elpis, realizing it is not a bioweapon but rather an antiviral to Umbrella's decades-long experiments. As the Ark disintegrates, Victor and Zeno are killed and Grace and Leon are saved by Chris Redfield's team. Elpis is used on Emily, restoring her to a normal human, who Grace subsequently adopts as her daughter.[15]
Other appearances
Outside of the Resident Evil series, Grace appears in the video game Fortnite Battle Royale (2017) as an alternate skin.[16]
Critical reception
Grace received positive reviews from critics who lauded her characterization and relatability. Ashley Bardhan of GamesRadar+ said spending two hours with Grace in Requiem turned her into the most anxious person alive, while Jordan Gerblick of GamesRadar+ stated that Requiem makes a strong case for Grace rather than Leon, to be the anxious hero needed for the series' most terrifying entry yet. Gerblick also stated that she undoubtedly appears to be the most relatable Resident Evil protagonist we've seen thus far, and that relatability elevates that fear factor to a whole new level.[9][17] Dom Peppiatt of Eurogamer stated that Grace is not only one of the best developed characters in the series but also a wonderfully timely addition to the Resident Evil protagonist pantheon. Peppiatt stated that he hopes Requiem's downloadable content (DLC) will focus entirely on Grace, as further exploration of her character would provide a perfect contrast and enchancement to what we have seen so far.[18] Jasmine Gould-Wilson of GamesRadar+ said Grace has her theorizing that the next Resident Evil remake will be Resident Evil Outbreak (2003) as part of Requiem itself.[19]
Another topic of contention was Grace's appearance in a flashback early in Requiem, where someone claimed that she was controlling her Minecraft server with an iron grip.[20] Additionally, both users from Reddit discovered that young Grace is a Reddit user who is perusing the r/amateurjournalists subreddit in the flashback clip while she is using her laptop.[21]
