‘The Last of Us’ Star Makes Their Feelings on Gendered Award Categories Clear

Bella Ramsey is likely a shoo-in for yet another Best Actress Emmy nomination this year for their role as Ellie in The Last of Us. Yet the actor identifies as non-binary, and prefers they/them pronouns. Which made their take on gendered award categories particularly interesting.

As Deadline reports, Ramsey recently sat down for an interview on The Louis Theroux Podcast, where the topic of Best Actor vs. Best Actress categories was broached, and the 21-year-old was asked about their opinion on the matter. “Call me how you see me,” they said.

Related: How ‘The Last of Us’ Star Bella Ramsey ‘Humiliated’ Their ‘Game of Thrones’ Co-Star

Ramsey took the argument even further, stating that they fully support separating categories by gender—particularly for women—and acknowledged that the debate about where to place non-binary actors is a tricky one. “I don’t have the answer and I wish that there was something that was an easy way around it,” they said. “But I think that it is really important that we have a female category and a male category.”

Despite their openness to being placed in whichever category seems right, Ramsey did note that they don’t think of themselves as an “actress.”

“I have a guttural, ‘That’s not quite right,’ instinct to it,” they said. “But I just don’t take it too seriously… It doesn’t feel like an attack on my identity.”

Already, industry prognosticators are predicting that Ramsey has a strong shot at taking home the statue at this year’s Emmy Awards ceremony, which will take place on September 14, 2025, less than two weeks ahead of Ramsey’s 22nd birthday. 

If Ramsey does win, they’ll be the youngest actor to ever take the category—a record currently held by Zendaya, who was 24 when she won Best Actress in a Drama Series in 2020 for Euphoria, and 26 when she won it in 2022 (which also makes her the youngest actress to be a two-time award-winner in the same category).