(married name Greene) is a fictional character in the medical drama series ER, portrayed by British actress Alex Kingston.
First appearing at the opening of season four in the episode "Ambush", Elizabeth Corday is a British surgeon who has moved to Chicago to gain more experience in trauma surgery.
She quickly gains a reputation for being unimpressed by status, an example being when she greets one eminent surgeon, Dr. Sam Breedlove, with "I knew you were old, but I didn't know you were so short!"
She befriends many of the female ER staff, including Carol Hathaway and Dr. Anna del Amico; and later on Abby Lockhart and Susan Lewis.
Despite her arrogant and opinionated exterior, she has a deeply caring side to her - she is there to provide support at critical moments for both staff and patients alike.
However, Corday can also be extremely harsh in criticizing her fellow physicians, such as when she berated David Malucci for abandoning his med student with a patient.
Because of the strong ties she has made with Chicago, Corday decides to stay on after her fellowship is terminated, even though this means that she has to repeat her internship in order to get a license to practice in the United States during Season 5.
However, the affair ends up haunting her later on when Dr. Maggie Doyle correctly accuses Dr. Romano of sexual harassment after he finds out she was gay and gives her a bad performance review; Elizabeth wants to go on the record to support Maggie's claims, but is forced to back down when Romano reveals he'd known she was dating Peter secretly while he was her supervisor.
In season 6, Corday saves the life of serial rapist and killer who starts to engage her in a series of mind games.
Corday faces struggles at work after she is sued for allegedly rushing an operation (leading to paralysis of the patient), and her pregnancy is nearly compromised when she goes into labor whilst on scene at a train wreck.
This happiness is not maintained for very long, however - Greene's daughter Rachel (from his marriage to Jen) has by now grown from a nice child into a troublesome teenager.
Elizabeth later has a medical case hit close to home (a selfish woman's sister refuses to agree to a life-saving liver transplant procedure) and after getting a dose-of-reality from speaking to Romano, Corday does move back in with him and Rachel.
On the walk home after a day of surfing, Mark suffers a seizure and in a panic, Rachel calls Elizabeth, who arrives in Hawaii soon after with Ella.
After Greene's death, Corday returns to England for several weeks, but she finds that she can no longer fit in after having been in the United States for so long, suffering bullying and sexist treatment at the hands of her British colleagues for her 'American' ways.
Elizabeth returns to her job at County General soon after the start of season 9, where she becomes harsh with patients, curt with colleagues, and particularly clashes with med student Paul Nathan (Don Cheadle) who is trying to become a physician despite advancing Parkinson's disease.
A sequence where Elizabeth calls Dubenko "cowardly and cocky" for not doing an illegal transplant, and rails about Kerry's "treachery and ambition", was in the original broadcast of the episode "Try Carter" but has been edited out of syndicated repeat showings.
Elizabeth is convinced by Dr. John Carter to perform the illegal donation procedure between two HIV positive patients, because she believes the operation is the right thing to do and also because it'll piss Kerry off (she also notes that a bill legalizing organ transplants between HIV+ individuals was approved by the Illinois state legislature and is stuck in bureaucratic limbo so the Governor hasn't been able to sign it into law).
Dr. Corday comes to County General to interview potential employees, including the surprised Neela Rasgotra, for positions at Duke University.