Who Plays Josiah In The Last Of Us?

Contains spoilers for "The Last of Us" Season 1, Episode 8 — "When We Are in Need"

When danger lurks around every corner, deciding who to trust and who to stay away from can be the difference between life and death. HBO's "The Last of Us" shows what the world may look like decades after an apocalyptic event, and as we've seen in many other entries in the zombie genre, the biggest threat will almost always come from other human beings. Whereas the infected in "The Last of Us" are essentially brainless and act on pure instinct, humans are capable of deceit, manipulation, and absolute sadism.

The potential danger of other humans becomes immediately apparent in the most recent episode of "The Last of Us," titled "When We Are in Need," which starts with Ellie (Bella Ramsey) doing her very best to keep Joel (Pedro Pascal) alive. However, Ellie soon crosses paths with David (Scott Shepherd) and James (Troy Baker) while out hunting. David informs Ellie that he knows who she is and that Joel has killed one of his people. Although David is essentially obsessed with Ellie and wishes her to join his group, the rest of his people crave vengeance against Joel, going so far as to go door-to-door in search of him. One of the people who volunteers to find Joel is Josiah — but who plays this character, and what else has he been in?

Josiah's final moments are spent struggling after being felled by Joel, and many viewers are likely to be haunted by the grin that creeps across his face during this scene. Some will also be wondering where they've seen actor Nelson Leis before. This is far from Leis' first time on screen, and looking at his career, one can see that he has popped up in many popular television shows and movies before. Oddly enough, Leis tends to play villainous roles, and he has notably appeared in "Prey," "Supernatural," and "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina." 

In the "Predator" prequel "Prey," Leis plays one of the French trappers who runs afoul of the Predator, and he is credited as a character named Waxed Mustache. In "Sabrina," Leis is under heavy prosthetics and special effects, and he plays the demon Beelzebub. Likewise, in "Supernatural," Leis plays an angel known as Esper who has no qualms with killing people to achieve his goals, but he is later defeated. However, he must have made quite the impression while on this show, because he later returned to the series as the demon Abraxas. 

Still, it seems as if Leis enjoys playing these types of roles, and that disturbing final smile from Josiah is sure to stick with people long after this episode airs.