Hester Ulrich (née Doyle) is a fictional character in the horror-comedy television series Scream Queens, portrayed by Lea Michele.

She faked suffering from scoliosis and is accepted as a pledge due to Dean Cathy Munch's new rule that everyone who would like to join the university's fraternities and sororities is welcome to.

[2] Ryan Murphy revealed that he cast Michele specifically for the role of Hester, so that she could play the murderer, a drastic change from her character in Glee.

Unlike her twin brother, Boone, Hester is very open about her psychotic, death-obsessed personality, and is calm and comfortable when someone points it out.

She and her twin, Boone, were raised in a mental asylum by a depressed Gigi Caldwell, who grieved for 3 years over her sister Amy's suicide.

After being released, she managed to get into Wallace University; Dean Cathy Munsch accepted her fake high school information and gave her a disability permit for her severe scoliosis, which she pretended to have.

In the pilot episode, she is nicknamed "Neckbrace" by Chanel Oberlin, and witnesses the death of Ms. Bean and fellow Kappa pledge Tiffany DeSalle.

Hester's evil plan comes to light when she announces her pregnancy to Chanel, who is furious once she learns that it was fake and that Chad will still get her pregnant anyway.

Hester retaliates by threatening to turn Cathy to the police for the cover up of Sophia Doyle's death back in 1995, and the murder of her ex-husband.

Hester later confessed to her crimes to Special Agent Denise Hemphill, believing that she couldn't be touched because of double jeopardy, and is incarcerated while the Chanels are acquitted at their retrial.

She convinces him to become a killer, and after the Green Meanies are all defeated, the two of them take Dean Munsch's money and flee to Blood Island to kill tourists in the style of a hunting game.

– is an undeniable scene stealer as the overly-knowledgeable Kappa pledge who doesn't let Chanel's intensity stifle her enthusiasm to support her sisters.

[5] The New York Times critic Mike Hale stated, "Best of all is Lea Michele of Glee, who plays an affirmative-action pledge who's locked into a neck brace and can make you laugh simply by darting her eyes helplessly around her limited field of vision.

wrote, "As Hester, the neck-braced KKT pledge who doesn't utter a single line really in the pilot, Lea kills it, doing more with a few facial expressions that many actresses do in a few seasons.