Zoe Slater is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Michelle Ryan. She made her first appearance on 18 September 2000. Zoe arrives in Walford along with her father, Charlie Slater (Derek Martin), sisters Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace), Lynne Hobbs (Elaine Lordan), Little Mo Mitchell (Kacey Ainsworth), and grandmother Mo Harris (Laila Morse). In January 2005, it was announced that Ryan would be leaving the soap, with Zoe's departure airing on 24 June 2005. Despite turning down several offers to return over the previous 20 years, in May 2025, it was reported Ryan agreed to reprise the role of Zoe later in the year. The following month, the character made an unannounced return in the episode broadcast on 16 June.

Following their arrival, it later emerges that Zoe is in fact Kat's daughter, and a product of incest after Kat was raped by her uncle Harry Slater (Michael Elphick) in 1983, and Zoe was legally adopted by Kat's parents, Charlie and Viv. This was nominated for Best Storyline at the British Soap Awards, as well as winning Best Single Episode in 2002. Another highly acclaimed storyline was Zoe's friendship with Kelly Taylor (Brooke Kinsella). In 2003, Zoe and Kelly made headlines in the UK, in a New Year's Eve episode that was filmed on-location in Scotland. In the storyline, Zoe, Kelly and others travel from London to Scotland, but their minibus crashes, leaving them stranded and injured on the freezing cold Scottish moors. While stranded, Kelly cares for an injured Zoe, and they become overemotional and kiss. The episode featuring their kiss attracted 9.5 million viewers, and the precise moment that they kissed was watched by 44% of the available viewing audience.

One of Zoe's subsequent major storylines was when she became romantically involved with local hardman Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman), which ends after Zoe lies about being pregnant and has sex with Dennis's father Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) – though not before he pressured her into claiming that she is pregnant with Dennis's baby, as part of his last-ditch attempt to stop his adoptive daughter Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) from leaving Albert Square. Her final storyline revolved around Den's murder on the show's 20th anniversary episode, after Zoe conspired with his estranged wife Chrissie Watts (Tracy-Ann Oberman) and their friend Sam Mitchell (Kim Medcalf) to get revenge on Den for how he victimised them. Their plan resulted in Zoe seemingly killing Den in The Queen Victoria public house after he attacked Chrissie; however, when Zoe left him behind, Den regained consciousness until Chrissie ultimately killed him for good, shortly before Zoe reappeared in the room where he was murdered. Soon afterwards, Zoe leaves Walford for Ibiza after making amends with Kat and Dennis. In her absence, her relative Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner), gives her and Chrissie a false alibi to prevent Zoe's imprisonment; Chrissie later confesses to killing Den. In June 2025, Zoe reconnects with Stacey after fabricating a story that she is on the run from loan sharks.

The character of Zoe and the rest of the Slater family were created during workshops with Tony Jordan and John Yorke. London actors were invited to improvise in groups, and the characters were created during these improvisations. Michelle Ryan was cast as Zoe, and made her first on-screen appearance on 18 September 2000. The family consisted of, grandmother Mo Harris (Laila Morse), father Charlie (Derek Martin), his five children, Lynne (Elaine Lordan), Kat (Jessie Wallace), Little Mo (Kacey Ainsworth), Zoe (Ryan), Belinda (Leanne Lakey), who was to be introduced to EastEnders at a later date, as well as Lynne's boyfriend Garry Hobbs (Ricky Groves). It later transpired that Kat was the mother of Zoe, after being raped by her uncle Harry Slater (Michael Elphick).

According to the BBC's head of drama series, Mal Young, the family was brought in as the serial did not "have enough solid families in the soap, there were a lot of fractured families and people who were alone." Ryan was cast in the role of Zoe after the character was developed at an improvisation session for thirty actors and actresses earlier in the year. He chose Lordan, Wallace, Ainsworth, Ryan and Lakey as the five sisters as they got on so well at the sessions. The actors performed a Nolans routine at the session, which was "later included on EastEnders as part of one of the Queen Vic's karaoke nights". The character is described as bolshy, defiant and a vivacious teenager who makes an impression on the men of Walford.

In 2001, an upcoming storyline, involving Zoe and Kat, when Zoe asks if she can live with Harry. The News of the World reported that Kat would tell Zoe that she was actually her mother and that Harry had raped her when she was 13. An EastEnders source said, "Zoe thinks her mother is dead—but the truth is very different." In 2002, a story where Zoe runs away with Anthony to get married in secret was announced. That year, Ryan was rested from the soap on doctor's orders, by agreement from Louise Berridge, the executive producer, Ryan and her parents. Plans for character developments between Zoe and Anthony were delayed and plans for their on-screen marriage were pushed back, with the wedding storyline being re-written. In September that year, Ryan said she would return and was looking forward to it, and Berridge said she was "delighted" and hoped viewers would look forward to Zoe being reunited with the rest of her family.

The friendship between Zoe and Kelly Taylor (Brooke Kinsella) was a recurring storyline for both characters. In the British press, Kelly and Zoe were compared to two former popular EastEnders characters, who also shared a close screen friendship, Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer) and Tiffany Mitchell (Martine McCutcheon). Kinsella commented, "It is nice to be compared because they were great [characters] but, hopefully, [Michelle Ryan] and I will bring our own characters to light and show what we can do. We have so much in common and we balance each other out – when she's crazy I'll calm her down and vice-versa. It's worked well, which is why Kelly has been kept on, which is great for me but also for Michelle because she's got somebody to have fun with. Kelly's been one of the slowest developing characters and that's been good for me. I wasn't thrown into it and having Michelle has been great for me."

In 2003, Zoe and Kelly made headlines in the UK during the New Year's Eve episode that was filmed on-location in Scotland. In said episode, the pair along with some group of teenagers travel from London to Scotland for New Year's Eve, but their minibus crashes, leaving them stranded and injured on the freezing cold Scottish moors. While stranded, Kelly cares for an injured Zoe, they become overemotional, and kiss. Kinsella explained the reasons behind the kiss: "They're stuck in the hills, thinking they're going to die—it's a way of saying goodbye and also of showing how much they love each other as friends. Which is quite sweet really." She claimed that the kiss was made easier due to the fact that she was kissing her off-screen best friend: "That made it so much easier. We thought we were just going to be laughing and giggling the whole way through, but we were very professional. It was so cold that we just wanted to get it over with. We were shaking from cold—not from nerves—and it was raining, so we just thought, 'Let's do it and get it done with'. [...] We laugh about it now. When it came down to it, the truth was that it was just like any other screen kiss." The episode featuring their kiss attracted 9.5 million viewers, and the precise moment that they kissed was watched by 44% of the available viewing audience.