Beth Greene

Optimistic survivor whose captivity drives the fifth season.

Beth Greene is a fictional character from the American horror drama television series The Walking Dead, portrayed by Emily Kinney. She is the daughter of veterinarian and farmer Hershel Greene and the younger half-sister of Maggie, and has no counterpart in the comic book series. Described as a source of optimism and hope, Beth is a soft-spoken, devout Christian teenager whose final arc involves captivity at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Quick Facts

Series

The Walking Dead

First

"Bloodletting" (2011)

Last

"Genesis" (2026)

Portrayed by

Emily Kinney

Occupation

High school student
Farmhand
Dawn Lerner's Ward at Grady Memorial Hospital

Creator

Glen Mazzara

Partner

Jimmy; Zach

Facts from the source article.

Appearances

Beth Greene is introduced in the second-season episode "Bloodletting" alongside her family and boyfriend Jimmy when Rick Grimes and his group come to the family farm. She initially believes reanimated family members are sick until the mid-season finale "Pretty Much Dead Already," where she watches the undead in the barn get shot, and later sees her reanimated mother put down after attacking her in "Nebraska." This drives her nearly to suicide in "18 Miles Out," but she decides to live.

After the farm is overrun in the second-season finale, with her boyfriend killed, she adapts to the apocalyptic world. At the prison in the third-season premiere "Seed," she sings to boost morale and spreads optimism. When Hershel's leg is amputated after a walker bite in "Sick," Beth chides Maggie for pessimism and devotes time to Hershel's recovery, also becoming a caretaker for Judith after Lori Grimes's death.

In other media

Beth Greene appears as a playable character in the 2015 mobile game The Walking Dead: No Man's Land and in The Walking Dead: Our World, which uses her season 4 appearance; both games use archive footage of Emily Kinney. In 2023, she was a main character in The Walking Dead: Destinies, a retelling of the show's first four seasons, with Kinney reprising her role. Merchandise includes trading cards by Topps, Cryptozoic, and Rittenhouse Archives; a collectible statue by Eaglemoss based on her season 5 appearance; a McFarlane Toys action figure from the season 4 episode "Alone"; and a Funko vinyl Mystery Mini figure depicting a hospitalized, scarred Beth with a rarity ratio of 1/36.

Development and reception

Emily Kinney received a promotion to series regular for season 4, along with Chad Coleman and Sonequa Martin-Green. The fourth-season episode "Still," focusing only on Beth and Daryl, drew praise from television commentators, with viewers shipping the pair as a couple. IGN's Roth Cornet commended the episode, stating that Daryl and Beth revealed themselves to be a more perfect fit than other combinations and brought out raw honesty, yielding grounded character moments; she also noted Kinney's acting as strongest in the final exchange on the porch.

Kinney said the show never clarified whether Beth and Daryl had a romantic or brother-sisterly connection, but that they first tried to get along and later became friends, with the possibility of something more. Andy Greenwald of Grantland praised Beth's newly established complexities and character evolution in the fifth season. Kinney received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress on Television in 2015 for her fifth-season performance, losing to Melissa McBride.