Annie Wersching, who voiced Tess in The Last of Us and also appeared in numerous television series over a 20-year career, has died of cancer at age 45.
Wersching was diagnosed with cancer in 2020, according to a Deadline report, but continued to make appearances in multiple popular shows. One of her final roles was as the Borg Queen in six episodes of the second season of Star Trek: Picard, which came 20 years after her first appearance on television in an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise.
Wersching's IMDB page says her final credit capped off a multi-season run on the popular Nathan Fillion series The Rookie; she also had recurring roles in shows including Bosch, Runaways, Timeless, The Vampire Diaries, and 24. Her longest run on television came in 2007 as Amelia Joffe over 80 episodes of General Hospital.
To gamers, though, she was best known as Tess Servopoulos, Joel's partner and a significant supporting character in the original The Last of Us. Tess is played holy rummy by Anna Torv in the HBO TV adaptation of The Last of Us.
Neil Druckmann, the co-creator of The Last of Us, paid tribute to Wersching on Twitter. "Just found out my dear friend, Annie Wersching, passed away," Druckmann tweeted. "We just lost a beautiful artist and human being. My heart is shattered. Thoughts are with her loved ones."
Druckmann also linked to a GoFundMe campaign for Wersching's three children.
The Last of Us studio Naughty Dog also said it was "deeply saddened to hear of Annie Wersching's passing."
"There is rummy 365 a cavernous hole in the soul of this family today. But she left us the tools to fill it," Wersching's husband Stephen Full said in a statement. "She found wonder in the simplest moment. She didn’t require music to dance. She taught us not to wait for adventure to find you. ‘Go find it. It’s everywhere.’ And find it we shall."
Other tributes to Wersching's life and career came from 24 star Kiefer Sutherland, who described her as "one of the greatest actors I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with," and the official Star Trek on Paramount Plus account.
Wersching actually had two videogame credits to her name: Five years after portraying Tess in The Last of Us, she also appeared as Tassyn in EA's 2019 sci-fi game Anthem.