This survey explores the emerging field of role-playing with language models, focusing on their development from early persona-based models to advanced character-driven simulations facilitated by Large Language Models (LLMs). Initially confined to simple persona consistency due to limited model capabilities, role-playing tasks have expanded to embrace complex character portrayals involving character consistency, behavioral alignment, and overall attractiveness. The survey provides a comprehensive taxonomy of critical components in designing these systems, including data, models and alignment, agent architecture, and evaluation. It outlines current methodologies and challenges, such as managing dynamic personal profiles and achieving high-level persona consistency, and suggests avenues for future research to improve the depth and realism of role-playing applications. The goal is to guide future research by offering a structured overview of current methodologies and identifying potential areas for improvement. The survey also discusses the evolution of language models, the key components involved in role-playing, and the challenges and solutions in each area, providing a detailed analysis of the current state and future directions of this field.This survey explores the emerging field of role-playing with language models, focusing on their development from early persona-based models to advanced character-driven simulations facilitated by Large Language Models (LLMs). Initially confined to simple persona consistency due to limited model capabilities, role-playing tasks have expanded to embrace complex character portrayals involving character consistency, behavioral alignment, and overall attractiveness. The survey provides a comprehensive taxonomy of critical components in designing these systems, including data, models and alignment, agent architecture, and evaluation. It outlines current methodologies and challenges, such as managing dynamic personal profiles and achieving high-level persona consistency, and suggests avenues for future research to improve the depth and realism of role-playing applications. The goal is to guide future research by offering a structured overview of current methodologies and identifying potential areas for improvement. The survey also discusses the evolution of language models, the key components involved in role-playing, and the challenges and solutions in each area, providing a detailed analysis of the current state and future directions of this field.