Bella Ramsey makes stubborn young characters worth listening to, even when they are wrong. We rate the work most when the writing lets them need other people without becoming obedient, as Ellie does in The Last of Us.
Fi1m perspective
Ellie needs Joel in The Last of Us (2023), but Ramsey never makes that a reason for her to stop having demands of her own. The closeness with Pedro Pascal's Joel remains awkward even as it grows. We were moved by their quieter stretches because the pair make accepting someone's care look difficult. This is the performance that makes the strongest case for Ramsey: there is a person here whose wishes matter as much as her safety.
The early casting favoured forceful young people, notably Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones (2016–2019). Leading The Worst Witch (2017–2020) and Lena Dunham's Catherine Called Birdy (2022) gave Ramsey more space than a commanding supporting appearance could. Voice work in Hilda (2018–2023) also made animation a continuing part of the work. Ellie brought that established forcefulness into a relationship we had time to worry about, rather than merely inviting us to enjoy another young person putting adults in their place.
With Pascal, Ramsey has a partner who does not make protectiveness automatically reassuring. He gives Joel's care an uncomfortable weight, and Ramsey makes Ellie someone with her own demands on him. Their scenes work because neither actor makes affection look like an agreement to get along. The first series occasionally gives its supporting characters too little space, but its central relationship earns the patience the programme asks for.
The limits are easier to hear in Sam Fell's Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023), where Ramsey voices Molly. Bored with the island where she lives, Molly is certain of herself and wrong about most things; Ramsey gets the teenage confidence right. But her friendship with Frizzle, voiced by Josie Sedgwick-Davies, is thinly written, and the plot soon needs them apart. The performance suits this tidy family sequel, but cannot give their friendship the time the script denies it.
For Ramsey, the more promising parts are those that leave room for another person to answer back. A sharp tongue is useful, but we want to see what happens when it fails to settle the matter. Start with the first series of The Last of Us, and allow time for the conversations.
Biography
Bella Ramsey, also credited as Isabella May Ramsey, is an English actor. They trained at the Television Workshop in Nottingham and made their professional debut at age 11.
Ramsey is known for playing Lyanna Mormont in the television series Game of Thrones (2016–2019) and Ellie Williams in The Last of Us (2023–present). Other roles include Mildred Hubble in The Worst Witch (2017–2020), the voice of Hilda in the animated series Hilda (2018–2023), and the lead in the film Catherine Called Birdy (2022). They voiced Molly in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023).
Ramsey won a British Academy Children's Award for The Worst Witch and received nominations including for Primetime Emmy Awards and Golden Globe Awards for The Last of Us.
