Zoey

"Zoey unfolded into an everyday young woman who everyone can relate to."

- Andrea Wicklund, Valve.

Zoey is one of the four playable Survivors in Left 4 Dead, the teenage daughter of a wealthy family. Being in her first year of college would make her at least 18 (although she could be older, depending on what age she was when she entered college).

Zoey's original design was based off of Alesia Glidewell, who also worked with Valve on Portal as a model for the character Chell. However, when the character designs were updated later in development, Zoey was made to resemble actress Sonja Kinski instead. Ironically, her name means "life" in Greek.

Official description
After spending her first semester holed up in a dorm room watching old horror movies, Zoey was given a choice: Stop fooling around and get her grades up, or drop out. Now that the planet's overrun with murderous zombies, and all of her professors are dead, Zoey at least has the cold comfort that she's been studying up on the right subject after all.

Relationships with other Survivors
Overall, Zoey is perhaps treated the kindest by the other Survivors.


 * Bill: In some ways, Zoey and Bill seem to have a father-daughter sort of relationship, and in generally he seems to become slightly more emotional when Zoey dies ("Aghh... not [tearing up] Zoey.") when compared to the others. She also seems to care at least somewhat about his wellbeing at times ("We gotta take the stairs, sorry Bill.")
 * Francis: Originally, Valve intended Zoey and Francis to have a relationship, but this was deemed to be "distracting" by the playtesters. In her cut quotes, Zoey picks on him often ("Francis, I know how to cut hair. Just sayin...if you need it...I'm here."). Although their former relationship is no longer very evident, she still seems to be friendly towards him ("Groovy," which was something he'd said before).
 * Louis: Although Francis and Zoey may have originally been intended to be shown as having some sort of relationship, something between Louis and Zoey is much more apparent now. Zoey tends to flirt with him from time to time ("Louis... You'd look good in one of those hospital gowns."), and frequently says somewhat random things directed to him as they go through the campaigns ("Hey Louis? Try not to get lost."), as well as becoming emotional when he dies ("Louis, oh God I can't believe it!"). An interesting point to note is that she has been placed next to him in every campaign poster so far.

Quotes and Captions
"See: Zoey/Quotes and Captions"

Trivia

 * Zoey bears a strong resemblance to Claire from the Resident Evil series. They are both normal women fighting similar creatures without any experience. The two both wear pink and red as their main colors. They also have very similar hair.
 * In the Campaign posters, Zoey's belt bears different studs from the ones seen in-game.
 * Zoey makes multiple references to popular movies throughout the game. Her line, "Game over, man! Game over!" is a reference to the movie Aliens, and "Almost there, almost there!" and "I have a bad feeling about this" are from Star Wars: A New Hope. "It slimed me" is a quote from Ghostbusters. "The zed word. Don't say it." line is from the film Shaun of the Dead, when Shaun and Ed are trying to figure out what to call the undead since they deem the term "zombie" as ridiculous.
 * Right before coming to the church in Death Toll, the Survivors come upon a cabin in the woods. This only occurs as Zoey, but she makes a reference to the 1970-1980s cult classic, Evil Dead, starring Bruce Campbell. She says, "Oh, nice, a cabin in the middle of nowhere. I know how this movie ends." The cabin is complete with a mounted deer head.
 * Zoey follows a running theme in Jen Taylor's work in which she portrays strong women who undergo extreme stress and begin to show signs of snapping. For example: Cortana in Halo 2 begins to act erratic after Cairo Station is nearly destroyed, claiming to "like crazy." In F.E.A.R 2, after Top is killed, she—Lt. Stokes—experiences a breakdown and begins pacing back and forth and swearing, unable to handle the situation. In Left 4 Dead, she reacts badly to the Zombie's enhanced mobility and tries to claim "Zombie Bullshit". Afterwards, she begins giggling nervously.
 * Zoey's voice actress, Jen Taylor, also voiced other famous game characters, such as Cortana from the Halo series, Cate Archer from No One Lives Forever 2: A spy in H.A.R.M.'s way and Princess Peach from the Mario franchise. She also recently voiced Lt. Stokes in the game F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.
 * Zoey made major news site headlines when a nude skin for her was released by a modder. (Links are news sites so they're safe for work)

Behind the Scenes
Zoey sounded older in early footage of the game. See this video for an example.