In the television series adaptation, set in the fictional town of Mystic Falls, she is portrayed by Nina Dobrev.

However, the show's producers, Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson, felt that it wasn't the direction they wanted to go with their heroine in The Vampire Diaries television series.

She was inside the Salvatore tomb, then relocated to a warehouse in Brooklyn, New York in the seventh season, then back to Mystic Falls.

Dobrev and her co-star Ian Somerhalder, who portrayed Damon Salvatore on the show, were in a relationship until personal differences led them to breaking up.

[1] On March 9, 2009, it was announced that Bulgarian-born Canadian actress Nina Dobrev, known for her portrayal of Mia Jones on Degrassi: The Next Generation, had joined the cast of The Vampire Diaries as Elena.

[3] Steve West Cinema Blend said the vampire brothers' battle over Elena will wreak havoc on the entire town.".

Dobrev went back home to Canada, yet, still wanting the part, she submitted a videotape audition, which saw her cast as Elena Gilbert.

[5] Initially, she believed that she would be playing the "bad girl" Elena from the books, but the show wanted to go in a different direction for the character.

[4] After researching, Dobrev discovered she would also play Elena's 534-year-old vampire doppelgänger Katherine Pierce whose characteristics are the "complete opposite".

[6] Additionally, she said "I think I have one of the coolest characters on the show — I get to play two completely different people on opposite sides of the spectrum and I just have so much fun doing it".

[4] Dobrev felt that her biggest challenge on The Vampire Diaries was distinguishing Katherine and Elena, and found it "interesting" to create a whole new character.

In The Vampire Diaries, Elena's "selfishness" in the books as a human was never explored, because it "didn't ever feel like a characteristic" the show wanted for their heroine.

[4] Describing Elena years later, Dobrev said she evolved from a "younger, naive, sad, young girl" to a "strong woman".

[1] Before The Vampire Diaries, Elena dated Matt Donovan (Zach Roerig), who was unable to move past his feelings for her initially after their break-up.

At the end of season 6, the two plan to become human, get married, and have children together, but their dream is abruptly compromised by Kai, who puts Elena into a magical coma.

Executive producers Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson agreed that in the book series, Elena was turned into a vampire too early, which was around page 200 of The Awakening.

[17] In what was described by the International Business Times as "the moment Vampire Diaries fans have been waiting for", Elena had to choose whether to be driven to Damon or Stefan to say goodbye to.

At the end of season one, Elena discovers that Grayson and Miranda weren't her biological parents, and that a woman named Isobel and her uncle John, who she grew up hating, were.

In season two, she learns that she is a Petrova doppelgänger, having an appearance just like Katherine Pierce, which means that she has to be sacrificed to release Klaus' werewolf side.

In season four, Elena is faced with the tough decision of whether die or to feed on human blood so she can fully transition into a vampire.

As a result, Damon used the sire bond to convince her to turn off her humanity, due to her incredible grief over losing her brother and the last remaining member of her family.

After revealing that Matt had the Gilbert Ring on, Elena's humanity was switched on and her emotions were focused on hate towards Katherine for killing Jeremy.

Season four ended with Bonnie as a ghost after bringing Jeremy back to life and Elena fed Katherine the cure for vampirism in a moment of desperation as she was about to be killed.

She is also unable to recover from Damon's death and starts lurking the borders of Mystic Falls in order to grab civilians, drink their blood, then compel them to forget, but as spirit magic no longer works in Mystic Falls, any of her victims who cross into the town remember the ordeal, putting her identity as a vampire at risk when one of her victims, Sarah, comes to town.

Once Damon comes back to life, Alaric tries to convince Elena to allow him to undo the compulsion, a decision she is reluctant to make.

The third season of Legacies reveals that Elena re-built her childhood home and is living there with her husband Damon, and daughter Stefanie.

[2] After she transitioned into a vampire, Carina Adly MacKenzie of Zap2it hoped that the "fierce" and "ripper" side of Elena would emerge when "someone messes with the people she loves".

Prior to her becoming a vampire, Ross thought she was less fun and "slightly boring", and wanted Elena to follow her instinct and "stop protecting everyone's feelings".

[21] Andy Swift of the website HollywoodLife praised Elena's relationship with Damon, which was a combination of real love and a sired bond, hoping they would live "happily ever after".

[21] Vlada Gelman of TVLine, however, felt that their romance was "over in a rather mature way for a young love triangle" and questioned whether Elena was "ready to jump into a relationship with Damon right away" while Stefan was still in the picture.