The Last of Us: Who is Bella Ramsey? Meet the actor who plays Ellie

English actor Bella Ramsey is back on screens as Ellie, a 14-year-old girl who is the only hope to revive human civilization in HBO's new show The Last of Us.

The show centers on a post-apocalyptic world twenty years after a strain of Cordyceps fungus infects people around the world and causes those who breathe infected spores to become animalistic or zombie-like. In the quarantine zone in Boston, Massachusetts, lives a goon called Joel (Pedro Pascal), who gets the assignment to smuggle Ellie out of the quarantine area.

Ramsey, who rose to prominence with her roles in Game of Thrones, The Worst Witch, Hilda, and Becoming Elizabeth, was last seen in the 2022 historical comedy film Catherine Called Birdy.

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Bella Ramsey's first credited role was in HBO's Game of Thrones

Born in Nottingham in September 2003, Ramsey was schooled online through InterHigh School. At the age of four, she started acting for leisure through the Loughborough branch of Stagecoach Theater Arts, which she attended for seven years. She then began auditioning for professional roles via the Television Workshop.

Bella Ramsey was first seen as Lyanna Mormont in the HBO fantasy drama television series Game of Thrones. After appearing in the episode The Broken Man, fans and critics noted that Ramsey was a standout actor for portraying her character's cutthroat leadership style. The Hollywood Reporter cited her as "season 6's breakout star."

Bella continued playing the character in seasons seven and eight. She then starred in the 2017 TV adaptation of The Worst Witch books as the titular character Mildred Hubble, for which she won the Young Performer award at the 2019 British Academy Children's Awards. She left the show in 2020 due to mental health issues.

Since 2018, Ramsey has voiced the title character in the 2018 Netflix original series Hilda, for which she was awarded the 2019 BAFTA award for best "Children's Animation" along with Luke Pearson, Kurt Mueller, and Stephanie Simpson. The show helped kick off her singing career with her debut song The Life of Hilda released on November 25, 2020.

Bella reprised the role of Hilda in the 80-minute movie special, Hilda and the Mountain King, which premiered on December 30, 2021.

In February 2021, Ramsey was chosen to play Ellie in the upcoming HBO adaptation of the 2013 video game The Last of Us alongside fellow Game of Thrones actor Pedro Pascal, who played Oberyn Martell.

When it came to casting Ramsey for the role, show creator Craig Mazin told The Hollywood Reporter that he was convinced after watching her tape. He said,

"Bella felt so real."

Neil Druckmann, who is also the show's creator, added:

"It was like Ellie realized in live action. It didn’t feel like watching an actor."

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Ramsey revealed that she is gender-fluid. She said:

"I guess my gender has always been very fluid. Someone would call me ‘she’ or ‘her’ and I wouldn’t think about it, but I knew that if someone called me ‘he’ it was a bit exciting."

She continued,

"I’m very much just a person. Being gendered isn’t something that I particularly like, but in terms of pronouns, I really couldn’t care less."

In The Last of Us, the 19-year-old actor plays a 14-year-old girl who is the last hope to save the world.

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What is The Last of Us about?

The show's official synopsis, according to HBO, reads:

"Based on the critically acclaimed video game The Last of Us, developed by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation platforms, the story takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival."

The Last of Us was created by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, with Gustavo Santaolalla composing the score.