the last of us cast is one of the strongest ensembles on television, and it had to be: HBO’s adaptation of the beloved game lives or dies on whether you believe in Joel and Ellie. Created by Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin, The Last of Us ran for two seasons and 16 episodes, following a smuggler and a teenage girl across a country broken by a fungal infection. Here is who plays whom — including the new faces who changed everything in season two.
Pedro Pascal as Joel Miller
Pedro Pascal plays Joel Miller, the hardened survivor who takes a job smuggling Ellie across the country and finds, against all his instincts, a reason to care again. Pascal appeared in 12 episodes, and his Joel is all restraint: a man carrying twenty years of grief who speaks softly because he has learned what shouting costs. It is a performance built on small choices — a glance, a pause, a hand that almost reaches out — and it anchors the entire series.
Bella Ramsey as Ellie Williams
Bella Ramsey plays Ellie Williams, the fourteen-year-old who may be humanity’s only hope because she is immune to the infection. Ramsey appeared in all 16 episodes, and Ellie is the show’s beating heart: funny, furious, fiercely loyal and, as the story darkens, increasingly capable of violence herself. Ramsey’s performance grows with the character, from the wisecracking kid of season one to the hardened young woman of season two, and the show never looks away from what that transformation costs.
Season Two’s New Faces: Dina, Jesse and Abby
Isabela Merced plays Dina, Ellie’s partner and the show’s warmest presence, appearing in seven episodes of the second season. Young Mazino plays Jesse, Dina’s ex and a steady, decent presence in Jackson, also in seven episodes. And Kaitlyn Dever plays Abby, the season’s most consequential addition: a young woman whose own story of loss collides with Joel and Ellie’s, and whose arrival reframes everything the audience thought it knew. Dever’s casting was one of the most anticipated announcements in the show’s history, and her performance delivers on it.
The World Around Them: Tommy, Maria and Jackson
Gabriel Luna plays Tommy Miller, Joel’s younger brother, in nine episodes — the man who chose community over survival-at-all-costs and built a life in Jackson. Rutina Wesley plays Maria, Tommy’s wife and one of Jackson’s leaders, in five episodes, giving the settlement its backbone. Together, Luna and Wesley make Jackson feel like a real place worth protecting, which is exactly what the story needs before it tears that safety apart.
The Game Connection: Voices Behind the Show
One of the pleasures of The Last of Us for longtime fans is how it honors the games without being trapped by them. The show keeps the story’s spine — the journey, the choices, the cost — while letting its actors find their own versions of Joel and Ellie. That balance is why the series works for newcomers and veterans alike: you do not need to have played the games to feel the weight of every decision, but if you have, you will catch the echoes everywhere.
Why This Cast Works
The first season ran for nine episodes premiering on January 15, 2023, and the second for seven, and across both the show’s gamble is the same: that you will follow two people through unbearable choices because you believe in them. Pascal and Ramsey make that gamble pay off, and the season two additions — Merced’s warmth, Mazino’s steadiness, Dever’s devastating conviction — deepen rather than dilute it. Whether you came for the infected or stayed for the people, the cast is why the show hurts so much.
Ready to cross the country with them? Start with The Last of Us from season one — and keep an eye on who is standing beside Joel and Ellie in season two.
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