Rachel Barbra Berry is a fictional character and one of the two main protagonists, alongside Mr. Schue in the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee.

Her storylines have seen her suffer peer alienation due to her Broadway ambitions and overeager personality, but she is very kind-hearted and willing to help even if people do not need it and develop romantic feelings for Jesse St. James (Jonathan Groff), a member of rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline, but primarily for quarterback and glee club co-captain Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith), to whom she eventually becomes engaged.

Rachel is the most frequently seen character on the series, with “Dynamic Duets”, "The Role You Were Born To Play" and "Shooting Star" (all in season 4) being the only episodes where she does not appear.

She is bullied by members of the school cheerleading and football teams, but is pleased when self centered quarterback Finn Hudson joins the club, developing a crush on him.

[8] The two share a kiss in the episode "Showmance", although he asks her not to tell anyone and continues dating his girlfriend, cheerleader Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron).

[11] She has a brief relationship with another glee club member, Puck (Mark Salling), who is also Jewish, and is a football player who used to bully her, but she breaks up with him due to her continuing feelings for Finn.

He changes his mind soon after, but Rachel has already begun dating Jesse St. James (Jonathan Groff), the lead singer of rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline.

The rest of the glee club presses Rachel to break off with Jesse believing he is just a spy, but he transfers to William McKinley and joins New Directions, which defuses their concerns.

Finn is quite jealous of Jesse and serenades Rachel by singing Rick Springfield's Jessie's Girl in glee club.

[7] Jesse betrays Rachel and returns to Vocal Adrenaline, leaving her devastated after throwing eggs at her in the parking lot at McKinley.

Finn and Puck attempt to avenge Rachel by slashing the tires of all Vocal Adrenaline members cars but Shelby catches them.

Rachel later kisses Finn after he gives her a pep talk about her being glee s true leader and it appears they are finally officially a couple.

Threatened by her talent, Rachel sabotages a potential new glee recruit (Sunshine Corazon (Jake Zyrus)) by sending her to an inactive crack house.

[16] Wounded by Quinn telling her that the two of them are back together, Rachel writes an original song for Regionals, "Get It Right", and when New Directions wins, is named the club's competition MVP.

Rachel proposes that McKinley do West Side Story as the school musical, since she believes herself to be a shoo-in for the lead role, Maria, and she needs the experience for her NYADA application.

In the episode "Mash Off", Rachel abruptly withdraws from the race for senior class president in favor of Kurt after she realizes he might not get into NYADA with her if he doesn't win.

She meets Brody Weston (Dean Geyer), a handsome NYADA junior, who encourages Rachel to move on and embrace college life.

While visiting, Rachel learns that Finn was medically discharged from the army several weeks ago and that he no longer wants to live in New York after seeing how happy she is without him.

She performs with Mercedes and Santana on stage for the benefit, Broadway Bitches, but the publicity stunt goes wrong when the dogs pull her down and drag her for several blocks.

Much to her dismay, Sue has disbanded all arts from McKinley and Rachel approaches the Superintendent to reboot the glee club with her remaining TV money to fund it.

During her time as McKinley's faculty, she bonds with Sam, who is the assistant of Coach Beiste, and develops a crush on him, despite him only being hypnotized by Sue to distract Rachel.

In the final minutes of the series, she performs OneRepublic's "I Lived" with almost every former member of New Directions and the adults during the rededication of McKinley's auditorium to Finn Hudson.

[18] In casting Glee, series creator Ryan Murphy sought out actors who could identify with the rush of starring in theatrical roles.

"[27] Michele described the first thirteen episodes of the series as "Rachel's journey of finding herself within the Glee club", and said that "she's learning how to be a team player and work within this group.

"[28] Michele based Rachel on herself when she was younger, and also drew inspiration from the film Election, and the Gossip Girl character Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester).

"[4] Denise Martin of the Los Angeles Times commented in her review of the episode "The Rhodes Not Taken", "If there's any justice in the world, Lea Michele will win a Golden Globe and an Emmy for playing Rachel".

[34] Following the episode "Hairography" in which Rachel is badly made-over by Kurt, Mike Hale of The New York Times noted a popular theme amongst critics for negatively highlighting the way Glee treated its female characters.

"[36] Conversely, Ghosh assessed her low point as being her romancing of Will, writing, "Sure, Schue's got it going on, what with the rapping, the break dancing, the boy band'ing and the lindy hopping too.

The first for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals ("Don't Stop Believin'"), and the second for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media (Glee: The Music, Volume 1).

[51] The cast of Glee was also nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series at the 2011 and 2012 ceremonies.