Rachel Berry is played by Lea Michele.
Lea Michele Sarfati (born August 29, 1986), known professionally as Lea Michele, is an American actress and singer. Michele began working professionally as a child actor on Broadway in productions such as Les Misérables. She appeared in several more musicals before being selected for the lead role in the hit musical Spring Awakening, earning a Drama Desk Award nomination for her performance. She has recently received widespread acclaim for her role as Rachel Berry, which has accumulated Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, in the Fox television series Glee.
Murphy describes Rachel's character as strong and driven but misunderstood.
Rachel is a Jewish sophomore student born on December, 18th 1994, aged 15 and the daughter of an inter-racial same-sex couple. She is also a vegan. She joins the glee club hoping that fame will increase her popularity and help her find a boyfriend. She is bullied by members of the school cheerleading and football teams, but is pleased when quarterback Finn Hudson joins the club, developing a crush on him. The two share a kiss in the episode "Showmance", although he tells her to forget it happened and goes back to his girlfriend, cheerleader Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron). Rachel quits the glee club when director Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) assigns a solo performance she wanted for herself to another student (Tina Cohen-Chang). She is awarded the lead role in the school musical, Cabaret, by Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) and Sandy Ryerson (Stephen Tobolowsky), who are conspiring to bring the glee club down. Rachel later rejoins the glee club when she realizes she would rather be in a group where she has friends. She has a brief relationship with Puck (Mark Salling), a member of the glee club and football player who used to bully her. Rachel ultimately breaks up with him over her feelings for Finn. The club attends their first major competition, where Rachel gives an impromptu solo performance of "Don't Rain on My Parade" and they win by unanimous decision.
Rachel begins dating Finn, who decides he needs to take time out for himself and breaks up with her. 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 glee club members suspect that Jesse is using Rachel, and threaten to expel her from the group unless she breaks up with him. Rachel pretends that they have separated, but continues her relationship with Jesse. Jesse pressures Rachel to have sex with him, but she decides she is not ready. He then transfers to McKinley High so that he and Rachel can be together openly. Rachel attempts to increase her popularity by creating a music video in which Jesse, Finn, and Puck all play her boyfriends, each unaware the role has been triple-cast. As a result, Jesse breaks up with her for a brief period of time. When Rachel loses her voice due to tonsillitis, she fears she will never sing again. Finn sings "Jessie's Girl" to her in front of the rest of the glee club, and introduces her to his friend, Sean (Zack Weinstein), who is paralyzed from the chest down, to give Rachel some perspective on her condition. When Jesse returns from vacation with Vocal Adrenaline, Rachel tells him that her dream is to find her birth mother. It transpires that Vocal Adrenaline coach Shelby Corcoran (Idina Menzel) is Rachel's mother, and had asked Jesse to befriend Rachel so that she might reconnect with her. When Rachel learns Shelby is her mother, they both confess to not feeling an immediate attachment, and sing a duet together before parting ways. Jesse returns to Vocal Adrenaline, and joins the rival club in throwing eggs at Rachel, humiliating her. When Rachel worries that the club have no chance of winning Regionals, Finn encourages her to be more optimistic. She kisses him in response, and Finn later tells her that he loves her. At Regionals, Rachel asks Shelby to leave Vocal Adrenaline and teach at McKinley High. Shelby declines, explaining that she wants to start a family. She goes on to adopt Quinn's newborn daughter, Beth. New Directions loses to Vocal Adrenaline, but the club is awarded another year together, rather than being disbanded. Rachel is shown holding hands with Finn; it is implied they have begun a relationship. Source: Wikipedia.org
