Lee Everett is the protagonist of Telltale Games' The Walking Dead: Season One. Convicted for murdering a state senator who slept with his wife, Lee is freed from this fate by the apocalypse and encounters a young girl named Clementine. He took Clementine under his care, and the two met up with a group of survivors. Lee rose up to protect them, becoming co-leader with Kenny and Lilly before becoming the sole leader of the group. Lee's personality is, to some extent, up to the player, but he is consistently smart, independent and resourceful. Lee also cared deeply for Clementine. It was because of Lee that Clementine learned how to defend herself from both people and the undead in the apocalypse.

"Part of growing up is doing what's best for the people you care about... even if sometimes... that means hurting someone else."
- Lee Everett

Prior to the outbreak, Lee was a professor who taught history for over six years at the University of Georgia. He had a mother, father, and a brother living in their hometown of Macon, Georgia, looking after their family business. Lee felt neglected by his family after he killed a state senator who had an affair with his wife, severely hurting his relationship with his family. Later on, Lee finds out that he's lost his entire family, and takes it upon himself to kill his own reanimated brother, mortified at the loss of his family despite the walls that had come between them.

Most of Lee's major decisions and dialogue are left up to the players; however based on conversations and Lee's responses to certain events, it's shown that he is smart, reasonable, independent, and generally kind. This is reinforced by Doug/Carley's statement that "everyone looks up to him," voicing their interest in having him be the leader of their group. Unfortunately, Lee is also easily agitated and overprotective, which is shown whenever his people, particularly Clementine, are threatened. It is clear that he would go very far indeed to ensure their safety. This overprotection also enables the player to make Lee angry at Clementine in certain situations, displaying that Lee can easily lets his emotions get the best of him.

The characteristic Lee commonly displays throughout the series is the ability to be compassionate and selfless, primarily portrayed in his relationship with Clementine, devoting most of his actions, and eventually his life, to ensuring her safety. Lee can direct death threats toward anyone he believes is a danger to Clementine and can be generally aggressive to most characters, such as violently shoving Kenny (Determinant) when he was in denial of his son's imminent death and pinning Vernon just for suggesting he take Clementine. (Determinant) In addition to protecting Clementine, Lee also ensured that she would be able to protect herself without him by cutting her hair and teaching her how to use a pistol.

During his conversation with Carley about his past involving the senator, it's implied that Lee had no intention of killing him and he claims that it was purely accidental, but nevertheless feels guilty, speaking with a tone of remorse whenever questioned about the incident. (Determinant) If Lee chooses to confide with Clementine as well, he can soften the story by saying the senator was a bad man. Whenever a character is pitted in a near-hopeless scenario, Lee tries his best to encourage and help them (either that or the player is given the choice to), such as caring for Clementine, senselessly tackling Andrew St. John to protect Duck, and trying to help Kenny when Duck gets bitten.

Although most of Lee's combat scenarios are influenced by the player, he is not a pushover by any means. If need be, he could defend himself and others by whatever means necessary, being skilled with most firearms and a capable fist fighter. Evidence of this includes his fight with Andrew St. John, in which he successfully managed to incapacitate him (either by beating him until he could no longer fight back or by kicking him into the electric fence after being pinned) despite initially being restrained by the man. (Determinant) He successfully shot several bandits dead when they attacked the motel, managing to save the group and get them to the safety of the RV. Against the stranger, he could successfully out-brawl and strangle him to death despite being shot and only having one arm. (Determinant) When facing Molly, he was able to dodge her attacks and knock her to the ground each time he hit her, despite the woman taking his weapon. (Determinant) Even before the apocalypse he experienced and survived brutal combat, being able to kill a man in a fight. He was also able to defeat numerous walkers, his most impressive feat being when he pushed his way through an entire herd, killing several of them with just a shard of glass (Determinant) and a cleaver. He could also disable a walker with two punches to the face when helping Kenny rescue his son. (Determinant) He didn't always have such success, however, since he was thrown to the floor by Kenny in the meat locker, (Determinant) overpowered by Danny St. John despite striking him with a weapon, (Determinant) thrown from the RV by Lilly, (Determinant) and knocked to the ground by Larry with a single punch to the face.

Throughout the story, Lee displayed great physical strength on several occasions. He was able to pin Vernon (Determinant) and Lilly with no trouble and restrain an enraged Kenny with a little assistance from Vernon. He could also pry Lilly away from helping her father (Determinant) and a walker from Katjaa with little effort. In his fight with Kenny, he was shown to be strong enough to pin him against a wall and choke him without causing any damage, despite Kenny actively trying to hurt him. (Determinant) Lee even managed to lift a door frame that collapsed on him with or without Kenny's help, (Determinant) despite several walkers being on top of it and trying to claw at him around it. He could also throw one off of him despite his leg being injured, pushed a zombie into a rebar by only striking its head with a rifle, throw another to the floor when it tried to attack Clementine and shove off two walkers while trying to push through the herd after biting him. (Determinant) He could force two doors closed despite several walkers pushing against it, keep Omid from falling while he melted the cables to a tanker, pull Ben up when the he was dangling over a ledge, (Determinant) singlehandedly push a car to barricade the motel, lift Clementine above his head on a few occasions, and free Doug from a group of walkers. (Determinant)