A pilot of the female persuasion, Samala Loené was in service to the Alliance to Restore the Republic in the time preceding the Galactic Civil War. Known by her callsign as Red Leader, she commanded Red Flight, a squadron of T-65B X-wing starfighters. Circa 1 BBY, Loené, accompanied by three fellow Red Flight pilots, was dispatched to the Wobani system to assist Extraction Team Bravo.
The character Samala Loené was featured as a non-interactive character, going by the name "Sam," in the 2016 Star Wars Battlefront: Rogue One: X-wing VR Mission, a virtual reality expansion pack available for download for the 2015 canon Star Wars Battlefront video game. Her complete designation, Samala Loené, was first established in Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy, a 2021 reference book considered part of the canon.