Samantha Gene Brady is born on October 16, 1984 (changed to October 16, 1977 when the character was rapidly-aged) with her twin brother
Eric Brady to
Marlena Evans and
Roman Brady. Sami is named after her deceased aunt,
Samantha Evans and Marlena's best friend,
Eugene Bradford. A feud between the Brady family and the powerful DiMera family puts the infants in danger. Roman sends them to live in Colorado after their mother's disappearance. In 1993, Sami reappears in Salem as a teenager. She develops a crush on her sister's boyfriend,
Austin Reed (
Patrick Muldoon). She is traumatized after seeing her mother having sex with
John Black (
Drake Hogestyn) which leads to an affair that results in the birth of Sami's sister,
Belle. At the time, Marlena was "married" to Roman. Sami's mental health spirals downward, and she becomes a
bulimic in an attempt to lose weight. Sami later tells Marlena that she witnessed her having sex with John. Knowing that she is John's child, Sami, who volunteers at the Salem Hospital, switches Belle's blood test. She then kidnaps Belle and places her on the black market. John rescues Belle on Christmas Eve. On Belle's christening,
Stefano DiMera (
Joseph Mascolo) shows Roman Sami's diary which reveals the affair and Belle's paternity. Roman leaves Marlena, devastating Sami. Sami befriends
Lucas Roberts (
Bryan Dattilo) and dates his friend Alan Harris (Paul Kersey), whom her family strongly opposes. Sami's best friend Jamie overhears Alan talk about being in love with Carrie, but keeps this from Sami. Frustrated by his unrequited love for Carrie, Alan rapes Sami. Sami confides in Lucas, but without corroborating proof, the press vilifies Sami as a liar once the news gets out. Alan tries to rape her again, and she stops him by shooting him in the groin. Distraught, Lucas manages to comfort Sami; and they have sex. She still, however, has a crush on Austin and drugs him into bed so he would believe she was Carrie. After her divorce from Roman, Marlena becomes vulnerable and is
possessed by the devil. While possessed, Marlena tells Sami to seduce Austin. She tries, but Austin rejects her. Sami leaves town in February 1995. Sami returns in July of that year and crashes Austin's wedding to Carrie claiming that she is carrying his child. After a rough teen pregnancy, Sami gives birth to
William Robert Reed on November 16, 1995. Sami hides the fact that Will is actually Lucas' son, and passes him off as Austin's. Austin and Sami are engaged and plan to wed. However, he leaves her at the
altar after Carrie uncovers the truth about Will's paternity. Sami renames her son William Reed Roberts and leaves town. She returns and befriends Franco Kelly (
Victor Alfieri). They become engaged; Franco is using her to get a
greencard and stay in the country. He is murdered on their wedding day. Sami sees the body and faints near it. Lucas's mother
Kate Roberts (
Lauren Koslow) frames Sami for the murder so that she will go to jail and Lucas can have full custody of Will. Sami is convicted and sentenced to death for the murder. In the middle of her execution via injection, Lucas confesses to the murder in an attempt to save her life. Unbeknownst to Lucas, Roberto signed a false confession on his death bed which leads to a stay of execution from the governor. Sami is freed and falls in love with
Brandon Walker (
Matt Cedeno), who helps her regain full custody of Will. Brandon and Sami are married briefly. However, her lies and schemes end the marriage. Sami has an accident at the DiMera mansion and falls through the window. Lucas helps her recover and they fall in love. They become engaged, much to Kate's chagrin. Kate drugs Sami and places her in Brandon's bed the night before her marriage to Lucas in a bid to end the engagement. Lucas leaves Sami. Sami's sorely compromised psychological state deteriorates to such a degree that Sami begins to work for
Tony DiMera (
Thaao Penghlis), disguises herself as a man using an assumed name, "Stan", and sells illicit drugs to a pain-wracked John Black, all out of a base-born, suppositious need for revenge. Attempting to redeem herself, Sami convinces Lucas that Kate had set her up; that she was never unfaithful. The two reunite and agree to marry once again. Lucas believes that Sami has changed for the better, but Kate reveals Sami's misdeeds as "Stan," and Lucas calls off the wedding. Austin Reed returns to Salem and befriends Sami. Carrie Brady also returns after ending her relationship with Mike Horton. Lucas and Austin, now business rivals, attempt to buy out Carrie's company. Lucas backs out, finding out that Carrie runs the entire company, and that once again, Sami manipulated him. Austin and Carrie fall back in love and plan their future together when Carrie learns that Austin's company has taken over Highstyle. Carrie dates Lucas on the rebound. Austin does the same with Sami, and both couples become engaged. Sami's relationship to Austin is tested however, when
EJ Wells (
James Scott), an English race car driver, moves into the apartment next to theirs. When Sami and Austin's wedding ends in disaster, EJ and Sami kiss for the first time. Carrie ends her relationship with Lucas and remarries Austin before they both leave Salem. Sami turns to EJ, and the two begin dating. Sami then discovers that not only is he sleeping with Kate but that he is also Stefano's son. Sami and Lucas rekindle their love in spite of Kate, and the two decide to take a road trip. Their car breaks down in a snow storm, and they seek shelter in an abandoned cabin where they make love. Weighed down by snow, the crumbling ceiling caves in. Lucas is trapped, Sami runs to get help, meets up with EJ in a snow drift, and asks him to help her. Revealing himself as a true DiMera, EJ agrees to help Sami only if she has sex with him. In subsequent weeks, EJ continues to taunt Sami with reminders of the deal they made that night. Sami tells Lucas about her pregnancy and they get married; the night of their wedding, he learns about EJ raping her. Her pregnancy is full of speculation about who the father of her unborn twins were. She later gives birth to: John "Johnny" Roman Roberts (later legally changed to
John Roman DiMera) and
Alice "Allie" Caroline Horton. It was revealed after a paternity test that EJ was Johnny's father and Allie was Lucas' daughter. Sami makes the painful decision to end her marriage to Lucas and marry EJ to end the Brady-DiMera feud. At her wedding to EJ, Lucas, Marlena and Kate attempt to shoot EJ Lucas is arrested and sent to prison, and Will leaves for Switzerland. It is later revealed that Will was the actual shooter and Lucas went to prison to protect his son. EJ tries to take custody of Johnny. But immigration wants to deport EJ, and Sami helps him by moving into the DiMera mansion with Johnny to show to immigration that they are a happily married couple. They have sex, and Lucas, released on house arrest, sees them at it. Although Sami ends her marriage to E.J., Lucas does not forgive her. EJ moves on to
Nicole Walker (
Arianne Zucker), and Sami finds out she is pregnant again. She does not tell E.J., and after witnessing a murder, she goes into witness protection. She befriends her guard,
Rafe Hernandez (
Galen Gering), and gives birth to a daughter. Nicole miscarries E.J.'s child but pretends to still be pregnant and secretly illegally adopts a baby girl to pass off to EJ as their own. Nicole then finds out that Sami's baby daughter is actually EJ's and she secretly switches the two baby girls, so that EJ will be raising a child that is biologically his. Nicole's switch works and she begins raising Sami's child,
Sydney DiMera, as her own. Sami is in love with Rafe, and together they raise the baby, named
Grace, believing Sami gave birth to her. Grace contracts meningitis and dies, and Sami confesses to EJ that Grace was "his", and EJ is furious. Eventually, the baby switch is revealed and Sami is reunited with Sydney. But for revenge against Sami, E.J. kidnaps Sydney and makes everyone think she is dead. But he falls back in love with Sami and returns Sydney to her, pretending to be the hero. EJ and Sami reconnect, and after her relationship with Rafe ends, she becomes engaged to EJ However, at the wedding, Rafe presents evidence to Sami that E.J. was behind Sydney's kidnapping. She leaves EJ for Rafe, and discovers that he had a plan to kidnap both his children and take them away forever. To stop him, she shoots him in the head. Rafe proposes to her while EJ narrowly escapes death. He later wins full custody of the children and Sami marries Rafe. Johnny is diagnosed with eye cancer and she regains joint custody. After allowing Johnny and Sydney back into their mother's life, Stefano and EJ switch Rafe with an impostor whose face they surgically alter so he can pose as Rafe's double. The DiMeras' schemes are eventually revealed, and after some months, the real Rafe is reunited with Sami. During a family get-together, Johnny goes missing and Sami rushes to the DiMera mansion insisting that EJ has him. They see in a news report that Johnny has "died" and in their grief, have sex. However, the news report turns out to be false and Johnny is found alive and well. Will is angry with his mom for being unfaithful to Rafe, and when Rafe finds out about it Sami's marriage to Rafe ends. Lucas returns to town and Sami and Lucas reconnect. They are taken aback when Will reveals to them that he is gay. Sami initially runs out on Will, but she soon comes round to support him. Stefano is apparently murdered, and EJ is held responsible, and Sami decides to help prove his innocence, much to Lucas's dismay. Sami's reunion with Lucas ends. Stefano is revealed to be alive, and EJ is cleared for murder. Sami starts to feel torn between EJ and Rafe. Rafe and Sami agree to give their relationship a second chance. Sami plans
Gabi Hernandez (
Camila Banus) and
Nick Fallon's (
Blake Berris) wedding, wanting to tell EJ her decision after the wedding. However, during the wedding, it is revealed that Nick is not the father of Gabi's unborn baby – Will is. Sami is furious with Gabi, and Rafe defends his sister, insulting Will in the process. Sami is furious and breaks up with Rafe. Sami eventually tells EJ about Rafe and her plan to leave him. EJ forgives her, and they reunite. Nick demands Will sign away his paternal rights to the baby. When Sami, Lucas, and EJ try to stop him, Nick reveals that he knows Will was responsible for shooting E.J. in 2007. Will signs away his rights to avoid being prosecuted, and Sami is devastated. She and E.J. team up to stop Nick's blackmail of Will. When Stefano returns, Sami and EJ decide to get his help to destroy evidence the police has against Will. Sami and E.J. stay together through the situation, and become engaged in April 2013. Soon after, Rafe is attacked, and ends up in a coma. Initially, the police suspect EJ, as does Sami, but she eventually realizes his innocence. The real attacker, Jensen, is revealed to be targeting Nick. He kidnaps Nick and Gabi, and ends up shooting Will when he tries to rescue Nick. Sami comes to the hospital and finds out Gabi's baby was born; she meets her granddaughter,
Arianna Grace, for the first time. Sami visits Rafe while in the hospital, and while there, sees a man come in with a knife about to kill Rafe. Sami shoots him to protect Rafe. EJ tries to calm her down, while Roman and the police search for the missing knife. Sami and EJ realize the man she shot was a police officer who was working for Stefano; the officer dies after surgery, and the knife is never recovered. Sami is arrested for murder by Roman. Once exonerated, Sami and E.J. marry, only for EJ to be arrested for tax fraud; Sami confronts both E.J. and
Abigail Deveraux (
Kate Mansi) for the affair the pair had behind her back, and uses her power to take DiMera Enterprises away from the DiMera family with Kate. Sami begins to forgive and re-trust EJ and they re-unite, but EJ is shot in the Salem park, and Sami finds him just before he dies. It is October 2014, and Sami, overcome with grief, accepts a movie deal with Hollywood executives to build a story about her life, with Will penning the screenplay, and she and the children relocate to
Los Angeles. When Will is fired from the movie, he goes back to Salem where, in October 2015, he is apparently murdered by Abigail's new fiancé,
Ben Weston. Sami comes back to Salem to mourn Will. Whilst in Salem she discovers that Ben's father
Clyde was the one who had gotten EJ shot, and she also finds a letter from EJ which leads her to believe EJ might be alive. The letter contains instructions which lead Sami to a safe deposit box containing the passwords to Stefano's bank account, but she is kidnapped by Stefano's son
Andre DiMera who wants the passwords from her. Sami escapes and she steals Stefano's fortune. She takes the kids around Europe as she pursues clues that EJ may still be alive. In October 2017 she learns that Ben Weston has escaped from custody, and is claiming that Will is alive, and Sami once again returns to Salem to find out the truth. ==Reception==