Maria Hill (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Maria Hill is a high-ranking agent who rose through the ranks of S.H.I.E.L.D.. to become its operations second in command. After S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, Maria went to work for Stark Industries. She is played by Cobie Smulders, who also portrayed Robin Scherbatsky on How I Met Your Mother.

History
She was present at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Project: P.E.G.A.S.U.S. research facility when power spikes from the Tesseract, deep within the facility, prompted an evacuation, but became puzzled by Agent Barton emerging from the site with a stranger she didn't know. Radioed warnings to stop Barton had her diving for cover when he overheard and opened fire. This prompted a gun fight and a chase, but she proved unable to stop Barton from making his escape.

Following the Project Pegasus incident, Hill took up her post on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, carrying out executive officer duties on the bridge. It was here that she was thrown into combat once again when Agent Barton, under hypnotic control, lead a daring commando assault on the carrier. She narrowly escaped serious injury when a live grenade detonating near her heralded the attackers reaching the bridge, and opened fire on the attackers in reply. After surviving the bridge attack, Hill proceeded to help coordinate further operations on the carrier, but there was little more that she could do with a crippled ship.

Following the Battle of New York, Agent Hill was present when Agent Coulson took charge of his new team as he himself was assigned to the new mobile S.H.I.E.L.D unit "The Bus". She also seemed aware of how Agent Coulson was revived after his apparent death at the hand of Loki. She however forbade Doctor Streiten from telling Coulson how he was revived and his recovery.

After Nick Fury was attacked by the Winter Soldier, Maria Hill encountered agents Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff at the hospital where the medics failed to revive Fury. After Natasha mourned her boss' death, Maria carried away the body.

When Steve, Natasha and their ally Sam Wilson were captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who were working for Hydra, Maria disguised herself as one of the guards of the van which transported them, and rescued the three heroes.

Maria then took Rogers, Romanoff and Wilson to a secret location where the survival of Nick Fury was revealed to them. After being critically injured by the Winter Soldier following the discovery that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been infiltrated by Hydra, Nick Fury had successfully faked his death by using a drug which greatly reduced his pulse, as it was easier for him to operate under the radar, as he could no longer be targeted if he was allegedly dead. Fury and Maria revealed Steve a way to thwart Hydra's plan to use S.H.I.E.L.D.'s three new heavily-armored helicarriers to impose their new world order, which involved replacing one chip in each one of the helicarriers to allow their systems to be overridden.

Captain America and Falcon then infiltrated the Triskelion in order to access the helicarriers. Following the replacement of the chips, Maria Hill was allowed to override the helicarriers' systems and reprogram them to destroy each other.

In the end, S.H.I.E.L.D. was left in ruins. The Triskelion had been wrecked and the secrets of both Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. were unleashed to the world by Black Widow. With the disbandment of the organization, Maria applied for a job at Stark Industries. Despite being protected by Stark's army of lawyers, keeping her from prison, Maria was swamped by U.S. government committees and agencies wanting answers about many of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets.

One day, Maria was approached by Agent Melinda May, who informed her that Coulson and his team had taken refuge at Providence base before asking about the truth behind Project T.A.H.I.T.I., the program that revived Coulson from the dead, and who was behind it, suspecting it to be Alexander Pierce. Maria explained to her that Nick Fury covered up the identity of the project director when he decided not to bury Coulson. May then fled as Maria was apprehended by the FBI.

Maria later led Colonel Glenn Talbot to Providence, where she attempted to convince Coulson to try to make a deal with the government. But upon being informed that his team member Grant Ward was a Hydra double agent and was holding Skye captive, she helped Coulson and his team escape Talbot. They tracked down Ward on the stolen Bus, keeping Ward distracted while Coulson infiltrated the plane to rescue Skye. After safely hiding at a motel, Maria reminded Coulson that once he was done with Garrett, was done being an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and his team must go their separate ways. However, Coulson didn't believe it to be fair for his team to either cut a deal with the government or work in the corporate sector. Before leaving, she reminded Coulson that he could always get a job at Stark Industries. Coulson was about to ask that she pass along his regards to Stark, but a glance from Hill reminded him that Stark still thought he was dead.