Elle Bishop

Eleanor Zoe Bishop, mostly known as Elle, is a fictional character on the NBC series Heroes. She is portrayed by Kristen Bell. Elle appeared as one of the new characters introduced in Season Two and according to contract, would continue on the series for at least 13 episodes into Season Three.

Elle is introduced in the episode "Fight or Flight" as an agent of the Company, an organization whose primary purpose is to identify, monitor and study those individuals with special abilities. The daughter of Company head Bob Bishop, she possesses the power to generate and manipulate electricity. Elle is portrayed as mentally unstable, which is attributed to extensive "testing" condoned by her father to research her abilities when she was young.

Concept and creation

In 2007, following the cancellation of Veronica Mars, actress Kristen Bell had voiced interest in appearing on Heroes because she was a fan. In July 2007, during a train ride back from the San Diego Comic Con with Heroes actors Zachary Quinto and Masi Oka, and writers from the series, the writers had mentioned that if Bell "ever want[ed] to come on Heroes, give us [writers] a call", to which Bell said she would love to. Announced in August 2007, Bell was to portray Elle, a "mysterious young lady" with an "awesome power" for a total of thirteen episodes.Heroes creator Tim Kring and the writers had created the character of Elle with the idea that she was a "cautionary tale" of what could happen if the other characters had known of their abilities for the duration of their lives as Elle did. Kring pitched Bell the idea for the character "which she loved" and soon they were "off and running." The casting of Bell, as Kring explains, "was not easy to pull off," but because of the large ensemble cast of the series and multiple story arcs, "we found a way to jump into a small window in [Bell’s] schedule."