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Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. Created by writer Kieron Gillen and artist Salvador Larroca, she first appeared in Marvel Comics' 2015 Star Wars: Darth Vader comic book series. Aphra became a breakout character, and began appearing in her own comic series, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, in December 2016. She is a morally questionable, criminal archaeologist initially in the employ of Darth Vader, but later in hiding from him. Aphra is the first original Star Wars character not from the films to lead a Marvel comic series.

Doctor Aphra is a criminal archaeologist with an expert knowledge of droid and weapons technologies, with a particular interest in ancient weapons and Jedi artifacts. She travels in a unique starship called the Ark Angel, which features a custom white-and-blue paint job. and Slate called her "driven, selfish, decisive, and wildly unpredictable". Creator Kieron Gillen noted that the character's main interest is "this weird obsession she has with uncovering old stuff". Doctor Aphra writer Si Spurrier explained that despite the expectation that Star Wars characters "will always do the right thing", Aphra makes mistakes and sometimes chooses the unexpected.

In creating the character, Gillen looked to what he called "The Indiana Jones archaeologist archetype", which he believed fit well into Star Wars. His original concept for Aphra was Indiana Jones and his ramshackle problem solving, but with inverted ethics. He said that Aphra falls somewhere between a hero and a villain in that "You do see her do good things and bad things." Gillen added, "She's kind of fun but at the same time, there's a really dark heart to her." He explained, "She has this very fun-loving attitude, she's very fun to be around, but she's really bad as a person." He added:

Spurrier said, "She knows that Vader is probably not a nice person. She's aware that space fascism is not necessarily a good thing but it may be the right thing for a chaotic universe". Gillen compared Aphra to Darth Vader in that fans root for both as anti-heroes, but explained that while Aphra is a "bad person in many ways", Vader is on another level as "one of the greatest villains of all time." Gillen added, "you can root [for her], because she makes really bad life decisions and sort of rolls with them ... She doesn't like killing people. She's not like a random murderer." He noted that Aphra is complex in that she is "adamantly pro-Empire" but still tends not to obey the Empire's rules. SyFy Wire described Aphra as a "queer woman of color", noting her affinity for women and slightly Asian appearance. Slate agreed that the character is "drawn with a suggestion of Asian heritage", and also noted, "She aches for two different women who have claims to her heart—two women whom, inevitably, she must betray to survive." Gillen confirmed Aphra's sexuality, saying he has written her primarily romantically interested in women rather than men, but noted that "Star Wars doesn't really have the terminology that we do ... homophobia as we know it doesn't really exist in the Star Wars universe". Of Aphra's relationship with Magna Tolvan, Gillen said he imagined "This hard-bitten, kind of very serious kind of person chasing down this more whimsical person and the sexual tension ... the flip of it is, Aphra's the person who's also pursuing Tolvan."

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