Who plays Ellie in The Last of Us game?

The season finale of HBO’s The Last of Us aired in the UK on Monday, bringing to a close of the most acclaimed television shows in recent memory. The hit post-apocalyptic drama – based on the 2013 video game of the same name – follows smuggler Joel (Pedro Pascal) and 14-year-old Ellie (Bella Ramsey) on a treacherous journey across the United States after a mutated fungus has left the human race all but extinct.

Episode nine – titled Look for the Light – saw the unlikely duo reach their destination of Salt Lake City, Utah, where a group of doctors are working to find a cure for the Cordyceps infection. The finale reached an impressive 8.2m viewers when it aired in the US on Sunday night, marking a new series high.

Co-creators and executive producers Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have assembled a stellar cast for the series, centred around stars Pascal and Ramsey. The showrunners were also keen to have stars of the video game return for its live-action adaptation.

READ MORE: The Last of Us differences between the final episode and the game

The series has seen Merle Dandridge reprise her role from the game as Firefly leader Marlene, while Jeffrey Pierce – the originator of Joel’s brother Tommy – played ill-fated villain Perry in the Kansas City story arc. Original Joel actor Troy Baker had a supporting role in episode eight as James, a member of a group of cannibalistic survivors living in an old resort called Silver Lake.

But in the season finale, the original Ellie actress makes an appearance, too. Voice and motion-capture actress Ashley Johnson – who played the teenage protagonist in The Last of Us video game and its 2020 sequel – featured in the episode’s dramatic opening scenes.

Johnson starred in a flashback