She is portrayed by Laura Bailey through motion capture and voice acting in the game, and Kaitlyn Dever in the second season of the television adaptation.

A soldier of the Washington Liberation Front (WLF), Abby seeks to avenge her father's death by killing Joel Miller.

He wanted to avoid casting Bailey due to her proliferation of roles, but was impressed with her audition tape in how she had played into Abby's vulnerability.

When reviewing her audition tape, however, Druckmann was impressed by how Bailey had played into Abby's vulnerability, whereas other actors emphasized her anger.

[6] An early iteration of the story had a young Abby witnessing an attack on her group by Joel and Tommy, who were hunters at the time (in the unseen 20 years of the first game), and vowing revenge.

As the story and its theme of violence developed, the writers found it more interesting for Abby's father to have been killed by the player in the first game and directly tie into Joel's actions.

After witnessing Owen's refusal to give up looking for a "light" in a world of darkness, she finds her own purpose in protecting Yara and Lev, which Druckmann felt mirrored Joel's redemption arc from the first game.

[11] The obstacles she overcomes when gathering medical supplies to save Yara's life demonstrates the lengths to which she will go to help the children and redeem herself.

[4]: 46:28 Kaitlyn Dever's casting as Abby in the second season of HBO's television adaptation of the video games was announced on January 9, 2024.

[18] Dever was considered to play Ellie in the abandoned film adaptation of The Last of Us years earlier, and had attended a table read for the role; Mazin later suggested her as Abby.

WLF leader Isaac Dixon believes Owen may have defected, and plans to assault the Seraphites' nearby island settlement.

Yara's arm requires amputation, so Abby and Lev retrieve medical supplies from the hospital, which is overrun by Infected.

Abby and Lev return to the aquarium to find Owen and his pregnant girlfriend Mel killed and a map leading to Ellie's theater hideout.

Some time later, Abby and Lev arrive in Santa Barbara searching for the Fireflies, but are captured by the Rattlers, a gang of slave-keeping bandits.

Den of Geek's John Saavedra lauded Bailey for bringing Abby to life and making the player empathize with her by the game's end.

[28] VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi concluded that Abby redeemed herself by sparing Ellie and praised Naughty Dog's ability to make the character likable.

[32] Collider's Dave Trumbore felt Abby's killing of Joel led to her being unfairly maligned by audiences who had failed to understand the story's message and subtext.