Episode 6 of “The Last of Us” was an emotional rollercoaster for Joel and Ellie — and for fans who caught a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo of a major “The Last of Us Part 2” character. WAS THAT DINA was trending on Twitter after the episode dropped, with enthusiastic fans around the world wondering if the girl who was staring at Ellie in the Jackson dining hall was indeed who we thought she was.
As a hardcore “The Last of Us Part 2” apologist, I needed to know if it was Dina and, if so, who she was played by. So I did some digging. This is what I came up with.
Who Played Dina In “The Last of Us” Episode 6?
To begin with, Dina isn’t named in the credits. But “Staring Girl” is, who’s pretty obviously this character, and she’s played by Paolina Van Kleef.
She’s a relative unknown, with two credits to her name besides “The Last of Us”. She’ll will play Harper in two episodes of “The Night Agent”, a thriller coming out later this year, and had a small role in the 2018 short film “Yasmina”.
Her Instagram doesn’t have much more information, besides listing her full name as Paolina Hernandez Van Kleef. That hasn’t stopped fans from flooding her posts with messages of support after her cameo in episode 6, though.
“Really hoping you’re Dina ? give me hope!!!” one user wrote, while others are literally just commenting “DINA” in all caps.
And she does look the part!
The showrunners obviously aren’t ready to reveal the role in full yet. However, in “The Last of Us” podcast that aired after the episode, host Troy Baker and showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann all but confirmed it was Dina.
Neil Druckmann: And then there’s a nice kind of… Would you call it an Easter egg? I don’t know if I’d call it an Easter egg.
Craig Mazin: I mean, it’s ambiguous. Somebody’s staring at Ellie.
Druckmann: Yeah.
Mazin: I wonder who that could be, theoretically or not. We’ll find out maybe one day.
Troy Baker: Oh! I completely missed that. “What are you looking at.”
Druckmann: Yeah, because in Part 2, there is a story about the first time Dina met Ellie that is very similar to what happens here.
Mazin: That doesn’t mean that that’s Dina, but it doesn’t mean it’s not.
Of course, even if it was a Dina cameo (which we’re convinced it was), it’s not guaranteed that Van Kleef will play her in Season 2.
“While I’m certain this is meant to be Dina (podcast and Neil’s tweet as good as confirms it), there’s a strong chance the role will be played by a different actor come Season 2,” wrote Reddit user @grapes9h5. “Just the way things tend to work in Hollywood.”
Who Is Dina In “The Last of Us”?
Slight spoilers for “The Last of Us Part 2” follow, but for anyone wondering why fans are so excited over this brief appearance, read on. Dina is Ellie’s love interest in the second game, and your companion during the first few chapters.
She’s modelled after Cascina Caradonna and voiced by Shannon Woodward, who’s joining in on all the speculation and causing a frenzy among fans.
Dina and Ellie meet in Jackson between the first and second games. Interestingly, the episode 6 cameo matches up with how Dina remembers meeting Ellie in the game.
We’ll have to wait for Season 2 to find out more, but safe to say that fans are already hyped to meet some of their favourite characters from Part 2.
