Discover below who has taken the director’s chair for each of the 9 episodes of the first season of The Last of Us. Coming from an array of backgrounds in the TV and film industry, the list ranges from Iranian horror directors to BAFTA nominated and Oscar-winning directors.

Mazin has an impressive list of screenwriting credits, which include the wildly successful Hangover films. Since 2019, he has become best-known for his Emmy-Award winning work on the miniseries, Chernobyl, which dramatized the 1986 disaster. Unlike co-writer Neil Druckmann, Mazin has more experience in the director’s chair, having helmed The Specials (written by Marvel and DC’s James Gunn), and Superhero movie. He takes up the mantel of director for the first episode of The Last of Us, which runs at 90 mins.

That’s right, in a rare crossover from the gaming world to TV, the videogame’s original writer and series co-writer, is helming an early episode of the series. Druckmann taking a turn in the director’s chair shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise given the arresting visuals and cinematic flair he deployed in the videogame. It made use of motion-capture for Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson’s performances as Joel and Ellie, which helped to establish the immersive nature of the award-winning PlayStation game. So, Druckmann is no stranger to giving direction, albeit in a virtual, rather than a real-world environment.

When viewers reach the third episode of the series, it will be easy to see why the production turned to BAFTA award-winning, Peter Hoar. Working across TV and Film, Hoar has directed episodes of Daredevil, The Umbrella Academy, and Altered Carbon. Most recently, he directed the moving comedy-drama It’s A Sin from Russell T. Davies, with whom he also worked on Doctor Who. Hoar was awarded his BAFTA for the Channel 4 drama.

Working on both sides of the Atlantic, BAFTA and Emmy award-nominee Jeremy Webb has worked on some of the biggest shows of the past three decades. Beginning on classic British TV shows such as Casualty and Grange Hill, he has been behind the camera for Downton Abbey (for which he was Emmy nominated), Silk, Masters of Sex, The Umbrella Academy (crossing over with Peter Hoar) and the Marvel series, Legion and The Punisher. Most recently he worked on the adaptation of the graphic novel, Locke & Key.

A celebrated Bosnian filmmaker, audiences will recognise her name from the Oscar and BAFTA-nominated movie, Quo Vadis, Aida?. The potent drama has received a lot of attention and draws on the director’s experiences of growing up during the Bosnian War in the early 90s and the events of the Srebrenica massacre.

Zbanic has made a career of crafting morally complex tales of war and war crimes, beginning with her first widely-released feature Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams in 2006. The Last of Us will mark her first foray into TV.

Director, producer and writer, Johnson has seen her short films screened at a slew of international film festivals along with her art installations. In the mainstream, audiences will recognise her as the director of Elvis Meets Nixon, with Michael Shannon as The King, and her film, Hateship, Loveship, which had an impressive ensemble cast that included Kristen Wiig, Guy Pierce, Hailee Steinfeld and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Johnson is no stranger to directing for TV, with credits on American Horror Story, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Silicon Valley and What We Do In the Shadows.

The Iranian film director and screenwriter is tasked with bringing the first series of The Last of Us to a close. In a short career, Abbasi has crafted three much-celebrated films. The first, Shelley, was a supernatural horror that won over the critics. Abbasi is best known for his second film, Border, about a customs officer who can literally sniff guilt on someone. Most recently, Abbasi directed Holy Spider, which earned praise again from viewers and critics alike.