Sunday night’s episode of The Last of Us surprised everyone. Josh Peck, famous for Drake & Josh and Oppenheimer, played a FEDRA soldier. His role was jarring and memorable in this HBO drama.
Peck plays Janowitz, a Federal Disaster Response Agency worker. He starts the episode with a swear-filled speech in a military van. He reflects on a past mission that went wrong. The story is crude, funny, and shocking. He talks about stopping three “voters.” This is FEDRA’s ironic name for residents without rights in the Quarantine Zone. Things escalate quickly. Peck’s Janowitz shares a funny story with his fellow soldiers. He talks about how Officer Greenberg misinterpreted “disseminating” in a very graphic way. This mix-up led to the now-famous line: “Nobody asked you, jizzboy!””
While the moment gets big laughs from the troops, one man isn’t amused—Jeffrey Wright’s Isaac Dixon. For fans of The Last of Us Part II, players know Isaac as the fearsome leader of the Washington Liberation Front. In a surprising turn, the show uncovers his backstory. He was a high-ranking FEDRA sergeant. But he betrays his squad and joins the rebels. Isaac gets out of the van when resistance leader Hanrahan (Alanna Ubach) stops the convoy. He tosses a grenade inside and locks the doors. “Welcome to the fight,” Hanrahan says, shaking his hand. 
Peck’s comedic yet grim story perfectly sets the tone for the twist that follows—a classic move for a show that thrives on upending expectations.
In an interview with Variety, Peck opened up about how he landed the role and approached portraying someone as morally compromised as Janowitz.
“To be honest, I’m kind of a wimp,” Peck admitted, explaining he hadn’t watched The Last of Us when it first premiered. “But once I got the audition, I watched one episode… then ended up watching them all in eight hours. It just grabbed me.”
Peck said the writing in his audition scene immediately resonated with him. “I read the scene and thought, ‘I think I know how to do this.’ I sent it off and kind of assumed I wouldn’t hear anything back—roles like this don’t usually come my way.When I got it, I felt thrilled.”
What truly hooked him into the show? Like many viewers, Episode 3’s love story left a deep impression. “It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen,” he said. “The casting is perfect—every character feels like they were born to play that role. That’s how I felt watching it.”
Now part of that elite HBO storytelling tradition himself, Peck remains humble.
“I haven’t seen the episode yet, so I’ll take your word that it’s good,” he joked. “But it felt like a dream project—everyone, from the writing to the acting, was at the top of their game. It’s refreshing when the work is that strong. You just get to show up and play.”
