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Halley Gross | |
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![]() Gross in September 2019 | |
Born | Fort Myers, Florida, U.S. | December 27, 1985
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Years active | 2006–present |
Halley Wegryn Gross (born December 27, 1985) is an American screenwriter and former actress. She is best known for writing two 2016 episodes of the HBO series Westworld and co-writing the 2020 video game The Last of Us Part II .
Halley Wegryn Gross was born in Fort Myers, Florida, on December 27, 1985. She grew up in New Jersey. She was a child actress who made appearances on Law & Order and later wanted to become a comedian while in college, but found that comedy made her uncomfortable. [1] She attended the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University (NYU) as an undergraduate. [1] She graduated with a degree in creative writing in 2008 and then gained a master's degree in dramaturgy from NYU in 2010. [2]
Before moving into screenwriting, Gross worked as an actress and appeared onstage in a 2005 production of Hurlyburly , [3] a 2011 production of The Metal Children, [4] and a 2012 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream . [5] She had her breakthrough as a writer and story editor for two 2016 episodes of the HBO television series Westworld. [6] She was also a writer for two episodes of the 2019 Amazon miniseries Too Old to Die Young . [7] In 2020, she co-wrote the video game The Last of Us Part II with Neil Druckmann. [8] The game went on to win multiple awards, some of which were awarded to Gross and Druckmann for their writing. The game also broke the record for the most Game of the Year awards received by a single game.[ citation needed ] Gross is working on the second season of the television adaptation of The Last of Us, [9] expected to adapt the events of The Last of Us Part II. [10]
Year | Title | Notes |
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2024 | Trigger Warning | Rewrote script by John Brancato and Josh Olson |
Year | Title | Episode(s) |
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2015 | Banshee | "Snakes and Whatnot" |
2016 | Westworld | "The Adversary" and "Trompe L'Oeil" Also story editor |
2017 | Emerald City | "Everybody Lies" |
2019 | Too Old to Die Young | "Volume 9: The Empress" and "Volume 10: The World" |
2024 | Batman: Caped Crusader | "The Stress of Her Regard" and "Nocturne" |
2025 | The Last of Us | TBA (season 2) |
Year | Title | Notes |
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2020 | The Last of Us Part II | Co-writer, narrative lead |
Date | Award / Publication | Category | Work | Result | Ref. |
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November 24, 2020 | Golden Joystick Awards | Best Storytelling | The Last of Us Part II | Won | [11] |
December 10, 2020 | The Game Awards | Best Narrative | Won | [12] | |
December 12, 2020 | Titanium Awards | Best Narrative Design | Won | [13] | |
December 22, 2020 | IGN | Best Video Game Story | Won | [14] | |
March 20, 2021 | SXSW Gaming Awards | Excellence in Narrative | Won | [15] | |
April 8, 2021 | D.I.C.E. Awards | Outstanding Achievement in Story | Won | [16] | |
July 21, 2021 | Game Developers Choice Awards | Best Narrative | Won | [17] |
The Last of Us is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Players control Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl, Ellie, across a post-apocalyptic United States. The Last of Us is played from a third-person perspective. Players use firearms and improvised weapons and can use stealth to defend against hostile humans and cannibalistic creatures infected by a mutated fungus. In the online multiplayer mode, up to eight players engage in cooperative and competitive gameplay.
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is a 2016 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is the fourth main entry in the Uncharted series. Set several years after the events of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, players control Nathan Drake, a former treasure hunter coaxed out of retirement by his presumed-dead brother Samuel. With Nathan's longtime partner, Victor Sullivan, they search for clues to the location of Henry Avery's long-lost treasure. A Thief's End is played from a third-person perspective, and incorporates platformer elements. Players solve puzzles and use firearms, melee combat, and stealth to combat enemies. In the online multiplayer mode, up to ten players engage in co-operative and competitive modes.
Neil Сuckmann is an Israeli-American writer, creative director, designer, and programmer. He is the studio head and head of creative of the video game developer Naughty Dog, and is best known for his work on the game franchises Uncharted and The Last of Us, having co-created the latter.
The Last of Us: American Dreams is a four-issue comic book series based on the video game The Last of Us. It was written by The Last of Us creative director Neil Druckmann and cartoonist Faith Erin Hicks, with illustrations by Hicks and coloring by Rachelle Rosenberg. The series was published by Dark Horse Comics between April and July 2013, and a collected edition was published in October 2013.
The Last of Us: Left Behind is a 2014 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is an expansion pack to the 2013 game The Last of Us. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, the game switches between two stories: the first, set three weeks before the events of The Last of Us, follows Ellie as she spends time with her best friend Riley in an abandoned mall in Boston; the second takes place between two chapters of The Last of Us and focuses on Ellie's attempts to scour an abandoned mall in Colorado for medical supplies to heal Joel while dealing with enemies.
The Last of Us, a 2013 action-adventure survival horror video game developed by Naughty Dog, deals with the relationship between smuggler Joel, and 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.
Ellie is a character in the video game series The Last of Us by Naughty Dog. She is portrayed by Ashley Johnson through motion capture and voice acting; in the television adaptation, she is portrayed by Bella Ramsey. In the first game, The Last of Us (2013), Joel Miller is tasked with escorting a 14-year-old Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States in an attempt to create a cure for an infection to which Ellie is immune. While players briefly assume control of Ellie, the artificial intelligence primarily controls her actions. Ellie reappeared as the playable character in the downloadable content prequel The Last of Us: Left Behind, in which she spends time with her friend Riley. In The Last of Us Part II (2020), players control a 19-year-old Ellie as she seeks revenge on Abby.
The Last of Us Part II is a 2020 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Set four years after The Last of Us (2013), the game focuses on two playable characters in a post-apocalyptic United States whose lives intertwine: Ellie, who sets out in revenge for a murder, and Abby, a soldier who becomes involved in a conflict between her militia and a religious cult. The game uses a third-person perspective; the player must fight human enemies and zombie-like creatures with firearms, improvised weapons, and stealth.
Joel Miller is a character in the video game series The Last of Us by Naughty Dog. In the games, he is portrayed by Troy Baker through motion capture and voice acting; in the television adaptation, he is portrayed by Pedro Pascal. In the first game, The Last of Us (2013), Joel serves as the main protagonist and is tasked with escorting the young Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States in an attempt to create a potential cure for an infection to which Ellie is immune. He also appears briefly in the downloadable content campaign The Last of Us: Left Behind (2014). Joel is killed in The Last of Us Part II (2020) by a woman named Abby, whose father he had killed in the first game, prompting Ellie to seek revenge.
The New York Game Awards is an annual award show honoring video games by nonprofit New York Videogame Critics Circle (NYVGCC). The first awards were held in 2012, honoring previous year's contributions to the video game industry and showcases the group's education work with underserved communities. New York Videogame Critics Circle's stated goals are to promote awareness of, and education for, video games writing and journalism in the New York City area.
The Last of Us is an American post-apocalyptic drama television series created by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann for HBO. Based on the video game franchise developed by Naughty Dog, the series is set twenty years into a pandemic caused by a mass fungal infection, which causes its hosts to transform into zombie-like creatures and causes the collapse of society. The first season, based on the 2013 game, follows Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting the immune teenager Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States. The second season is expected to adapt the 2020 sequel, partly following Abby.
Abigail "Abby" Anderson is a character in the video game The Last of Us Part II (2020) by Naughty Dog. She is portrayed by Laura Bailey through motion capture and voice acting in the game, and Kaitlyn Dever in the second season of the television adaptation. A soldier of the Washington Liberation Front (WLF), Abby seeks to avenge her father's death by killing Joel Miller. Her alliances later become unsettled when she befriends two ex-members of the Seraphites, a religious cult with which the WLF is locked in a war. Abby is one of two main playable characters in the game, alongside Ellie.
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The Last of Us Part II, a 2020 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, focuses on two lead characters: Ellie, who sets out for revenge after suffering a great tragedy, and Abby Anderson, a soldier who becomes involved in a conflict between her militia and a cult. The switch between the playable characters was a major point of the game's development, based on a similar switch in the original game, 2013's The Last of Us.
The Game Awards 2020 was an award show that honored the best video games of 2020. It was produced and hosted by Geoff Keighley, and took place on December 10, 2020. The preshow ceremony was hosted by Sydnee Goodman. Unlike previous Game Awards, the show was broadcast virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic; Keighley presented at a soundstage in Los Angeles, while musical performances took place virtually at stages in London and Tokyo. The show introduced the award's first Future Class, a list of individuals from the video game industry who best represent the future of video games, Innovation in Accessibility award, an award for games that featured notable accessibility options. The show was live streamed across 45 different platforms. It featured musical performances from the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Eddie Vedder, and presentations from celebrity guests, including Reggie Fils-Aimé, Gal Gadot, Brie Larson, and Keanu Reeves.
The Last of Us is an action-adventure video game series and media franchise created by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The series is set in a post-apocalyptic United States ravaged by cannibalistic humans infected by a mutated fungus in the genus Cordyceps. It follows several survivors, including Joel, a smuggler who lost his daughter during the outbreak; Ellie, a young girl who is immune to the infection; and Abby, a soldier who becomes involved in a conflict between her militia and a religious cult. The games use a third-person perspective in which the player fights against hostile humans and cannibalistic creatures with firearms, improvised weapons, and stealth.
The music for the 2020 action-adventure survival horror video game The Last of Us Part II, developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, was composed by musician Gustavo Santaolalla, with additional music composed by Mac Quayle. The original score album was released digitally alongside the game in June 2020, featuring the work of Santaolalla and Quayle. An additional extended play, Covers and Rarities, was released in September 2021, featuring five cover songs from the game and its marketing performed by Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, who portrayed Joel and Ellie, respectively. The game also received two single releases as vinyl records: one in June 2018 featuring music from the trailers, and one in the Ellie Edition of the game in June 2020.
The second season of the American post-apocalyptic drama television series The Last of Us is set to premiere on HBO in 2025. Based on the video game franchise developed by Naughty Dog, the series is set twenty years into a pandemic caused by a mass fungal infection, which causes its hosts to transform into zombie-like creatures and collapses society. The second season, based on the 2020 game The Last of Us Part II, follows Joel and Ellie in the aftermath of the first season, and introduces Abby.