Who plays Ellie’s mom in ‘The Last of Us?’

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us episode nine, “Look for the Light.”

After nine long weeks, The Last of Us finale aired the epic conclusion to its first season, and during its finale episode, new characters were introduced for the first time. One of these was Ellie’s mother. 

While she hadn’t played a massive part in the story up until this point, when we do see her it has huge implications for the story being told as a whole. Given her sole appearance fans may be wondering, who exactly plays the character?

The answer to this question might be simple but it actually includes with it a lot more connections to the show’s source material than you may have first realized. 

Who plays Ellie’s mom in The Last of Us?

The actress who played Ellie’s mother in HBO’s The Last of Us series is Ashley Johnson. Fans of the franchise may have already been familiar with this star as she is the actress who voiced Ellie in both of the games.

Outside of these games, Johnson has had quite a career in acting. She has appeared in more than 300 episodes of the extremely popular series Critical Role and The Legend of Vox Machina animated series. Furthermore, the actress even appeared in the very first Avengers movie, albeit in a minor role.

Playing Ellie’s mother in the show would seem to be the perfect way to allow Johnson to appear in the show while staying as connected as possible to the character she brought to life in the source material.

Speaking on HBO’s The Last of Us podcast, the game’s creator shared that many of Ellie’s personality traits were directly crafted by Johnson during the time working on the first game during the motion capture filming process.

Of course, ultimately the role of Ellie would go to Bella Ramsey in the show, but getting this unique and fun cameo in the season one finale is a nod that many fans have greatly appreciated.