page_title: List of The Last of Us characters
section_title: Joel
hierarchical_section_title: List of The Last of Us characters / Lead characters / Joel
caption_attribution_description: Digital photos from the anime convention Taiyoucon 2011 in Mesa, Arizona. Actor Troy Baker... From the Taiyoucon website: A native of Dallas, Texas, Troy, once the lead singer for “Tripp Fontaine” (FMPM/Universal) first began working as an actor in TV and Radio commercials. He quickly became a mainstay voice actor of the Anime community with such roles as “Frank Archer” in Full Metal Alchemist, "Greed" in Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, “Abel Nightroad” in Trinity Blood, “Gennosuke” in Basilisk, “Schneizel” in Code Geass and “Action Bastard” in Shin Chan. Troy can also be heard in lead roles for blockbuster video game titles like Darksiders (Abbaddon), Final Fantasy 13 (Snow Villiers) Modern Warfare 2 (Allen), Call of Duty: Black Ops (Brooks), Red Faction: Guerrilla (Alec Mason), Persona 4 (Kanji) Tales of Vesperia (Yuri), Resistance 2 (Major Blake), Trauma Center: New Blood (Markus Vaughn), and Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (Conan). Troy has excelled in the on camera industry, as well. He has starred alongside Val Kilmer (Tombstone), Karl Urban (Star Trek), Steve Zahn (That Thingy You Do!), Elizabeth Banks (W), Glenn Morshower (24), and Lou Diamond Phillips (La Bamba). He was also the host and co-producer for the hit reality TV show “Road Rage”, which spotlighted pop culture conventions around the country. Now residing in Los Angeles, Troy continues to write and record music while also working on Naruto (Yamato), Soul Eater (Excalibur), and several other projects to be announced in 2011.
context_page_description: The Last of Us, a 2013 action-adventure survival horror video game developed by Naughty Dog, deals with the relationship between an older man, Joel, and a teenaged girl, Ellie. Joel is tasked with escorting Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States in an attempt to create a potential cure against an infection to which Ellie is immune. The relationship between the two characters became the basis of the game's development.
  Joel is the primary playable character of the game, though players assume control of Ellie for a short portion. Throughout their journey, Joel and Ellie meet various characters: Tess, a survivor who is closely acquainted with Joel, Marlene, leader of the militia group the Fireflies; Bill, a survivor who fortified his own town; Henry and Sam, brothers from Hartford; Joel's brother Tommy and his wife Maria who have built their own settlement; and David, the leader of a group of cannibals. In addition, Joel's daughter Sarah appears in the game's prologue, and Ellie's friend Riley Abel is featured in the downloadable content pack The Last of Us: Left Behind.
context_section_description: Joel Miller (Troy Baker) is the protagonist of The Last of Us. Originally from Texas, Joel was a single father in his late 20s when the initial Cordyceps outbreak occurred. Fleeing with his brother Tommy and his twelve-year-old daughter Sarah, they got involved in a firefight with a soldier, and Sarah was mortally wounded and died in his arms, leaving him traumatized. In the 20 years that follow, Joel did whatever he had to do to survive.
  Twenty years after Sarah's death, Joel works as a smuggler in the Boston quarantine zone with his friend and partner Tess. While out searching for a former accomplice who stole some of their merchandise, Joel and Tess are tasked by Marlene, an acquaintance and leader of a rebel militia called the Fireflies, to smuggle Ellie to a rendezvous point. Joel discovers that Ellie is immune to the infection. Upon their arrival, Tess reveals that she has sustained a bite on the journey, and insists Joel finds Tommy, a former Firefly, in order to continue the mission. Joel is initially surly and short towards Ellie, though he begins to warm up to her as their journey continues. This is compounded when Joel, having initially asked Tommy to carry on in his place after meeting up with him, changes his mind and carries on as planned. Their bond deepens when Ellie nearly loses Joel to a severe injury, and when he comes to her aid after she is nearly killed by a band of cannibals. Ultimately, Joel shows his devotion to Ellie when he chooses to rescue her from the doctors who plan to remove and examine her brain, as opposed to allowing her to die. To ensure they are not pursued, Joel kills Marlene. Driving away, Ellie wakes up, after which Joel tells her the doctors gave up on discovering a cure. Ellie later confronts him about the events, and Joel swears to her that he was telling the truth.
  When designing Joel's physical appearance, the team tried to make him look "flexible enough" to allow for him to appear as both a "ruthless operator in the underground of a quarantined city" as well as a "caring father figure to Ellie". When writing the character of Joel, Druckmann initially took inspiration from Josh Brolin's portrayal of Llewelyn Moss in No Country for Old Men (2007), which he saw as "very quiet, very cool under pressure". However, Baker's interpretation of Joel as a more emotional person evolved the character in a different way. Druckmann felt that players, specifically parents, would be able to relate to Joel's character and his bonding with Ellie. Druckmann became intrigued by players who discussed Joel's morality, distinguishing him as a hero or villain; Druckmann felt that Joel was only "a complex person who's made good and bad decisions", but allowed it to be open to interpretation. When auditioning for the role, Baker read a phrase on the character sheet that stated Joel had "few moral lines left to cross", which became the "anchor point" to the character for him. Baker returned to portray Joel in The Last of Us Part II (2020).
caption: Veteran voice actor Troy Baker was cast as Joel due to his voice and movement.[1]
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