Was That A Dina Cameo In ‘The Last Of Us’? Here’s The Actress

Last night’s episode of The Last of Us on HBO was an emotional ride for Joel and Ellie unlike anything we’ve ever seen from the series befo—WAIT WAS THAT DINA?

That’s the question that a million people asked during a very specific moment on the show, where Ellie catches a girl staring at her in the Jackson, Wyoming settlement.

It’s just for a moment, but even the very brief glance had Last of Us fans wondering if this was the debut of a hugely important character from the second game. One that would have a huge role in season 2, Dina.

Some mild spoilers for the second game follow. Very mild.

So, here’s the digging I’ve come up with. The actress listed in the credits as “staring girl” is Paolina van Kleef. She is in two episode of The Night Agent, a series coming this year, and a short called Yasmina in 2018. That’s it. She’s a total unknown. I mean I have more Instagram followers than this girl, though that may change after tonight.

On Instagram, her full name is listed as Paolina Hernandez van Kleef, and it seems as if she has Latino heritage, though van Kleef is likely a Dutch last name. She’s Canadian. But while Dina was meant to have Israeli/Jewish heritage, the point is…she sure looks like Dina enough to potentially play Dina.

For the uninitiated, Dina Ellie’s love interest in the second game (you’re about to learn Ellie is gay next week with her flashback episode). She was played in the game by Shannon Woodword, interestingly the actress who introduced Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann to make the show in the first place. But Woodword is not the right age and does not look at all like Dina, and won’t be playing her in live action. Dina’s face model is a girl named Cascina Caradonna, an actress and YouTuber.

As for Paolina van Kleef, she’s just such a new actress there’s barely anything to know about her other than she looks like Dina, she was in an episode where we are where Dina lives in the second game, even if the first game didn’t have any kind of cameo like this. So the odds are high that was at least meant to be her, but it’s another question entirely whether van Kleef will be the one to ultimately play her after appearing as her for two seconds. I’m sure she’d love to, but who knows. Sourcing is questionable on this, but van Kleef is supposedly 26 in real life, 7 years older than Bellay Ramsey is now, 19 playing a 14 year old Ellie. But Part 2 is five years later, so those numbers may work, especially if she looks younger, as I believe Dina is supposed to be around 20 or 21 in the game.

In summary, yes, I believe that was at least supposed to be Dina, or else why would they have included it at all? And that girl looks a lot like Dina for someone who was onscreen for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment.

But we don’t know if the actress, Paolina van Kleef is about to graduate from a relative unknown to one of the most important characters of one of HBO’s biggest shows in season 2. So stay tuned for any big announcements, forthcoming…

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