Elena Gilbert is the 18 year old human girl who is the main female character in the series. She lives with her aunt and her brother Jeremy in the town of Mystic Falls, Virginia. Elena has a romantic relationship with the vampire Stefan Salvatore, who unexpectedly has saved her life before in that eventful accident which killed her parents.

Elena attends Mystic Falls High School, where she is an active student, one of the most popular girls in school. She is an honor student and a former cheerleader. She eventually discovers the secrets behind the Salvatore brothers and she now finds herself dealing with supernatural events. She learns that she is a descendant and doppelganger of an evil vampire with whom the Salvatore brothers has connection in their life ages ago, the vampire Katherine Pierce.

Elena is played by the actress Nina Dobrev. Nina was born on January 9, 1989 in Sofia, Bugaria and moved to Canada when she was two years old. She attended Dean Armstrong Acting School where she was discovered for her talent in the arts. She has been in the TV Series Degrassi: The Next Generation in 2001 and in the movie The Roommate in 2011.