Meryl Silverburgh

Meryl Silverburgh
Metal Gear character
Promotional illustration of Meryl Silverburgh in Metal Gear Solid
First game	Metal Gear Solid (1998)
Created by	Hideo Kojima
Designed by	Yoji Shinkawa
Voiced by (English)	Debi Mae West (MGS, MGS4) Vanessa Marshall (MGS2: Substance)
Voiced by (Japanese)	Kyoko Terase
Motion capture	Eriko Hirata
Fictional profile
Nationality	American
Affiliations	United States Army Genome Soldiers (MGS) USACIC (MGS4)

Meryl Silverburgh (メリル・シルバーバーグ, Meriru Shirubābāgu^?) is a video game character in the Metal Gear series by Hideo Kojima. She was originally a character from the 1994 Konami adventure game Policenauts, which was directed by Hideo Kojima. After her original appearance, she was redesigned and reintroduced in Metal Gear Solid as Solid Snake's sidekick and love interest.

Meryl Silverburgh in the Metal Gear series is based on a supporting character of the same name in Hideo Kojima's earlier game, Policenauts (1994), where Meryl was originally designed by Tomiharu Kinoshita. Kojima liked the character so much that he used her name, likeness and other characteristics to the Metal Gear version of Meryl. Meryl's partner in Policenauts, Dave Forrest, also shares the same given name Solid Snake has, whose true name is also Dave (David). In the final scenes of Metal Gear Solid, Meryl wears an orange goose down vest similar to the one Forrest wears in Policenauts. Character designer Yoji Shinkawa stated that the staff purposely avoided mentioning her directly in the first sequel to Metal Gear Solid so that it could follow either of the two endings from the first game.

Meryl is first introduced as the teenage daughter of Roy Campbell's deceased brother, Matt Campbell, who died during the Gulf War. Born to a house of military traditions, Meryl trained herself throughout her childhood in the 'arts' of soldiery. She admired the FOXHOUND unit (a high-tech special forces group), viewing the days when her uncle and Solid Snake were members as the unit’s heyday, and wears a paint tattoo of the unit's old logo on her left shoulder. She joined the armed forces after graduating high school and received extensive psychotherapy to prevent any attraction to the opposite sex. Her weapon of choice is a Desert Eagle pistol.