Dolly De Leon continues to book her way through Hollywood. The actress was just announced to play Li and Lo, Princess Azula’s advisers in the live action Netflix adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
The show’s first season is a faithful adaptation of the original Nickelodeon animated series, which follows Aang (Gordon Cormier), the last living airbender and “Avatar,” as he awakens from a century-long slumber. The world of the show is divided into four nations — Fire, Earth, Air, and Water — and each nation is populated with benders who have the power to manipulate their respective elements. While the remake was met with mixed reviews, especially from fans loyal to the original series, Netflix’s adaptation was overall seen as an earnest retelling (and much better than M. Night Shyamalan’s 2010 take on the same source material).
De Leon will be able to push her skills playing not one but two roles for the Netflix show. Although the twins Li and Lo aren’t firebenders themselves, they do train Azula since childhood, giving her the ability to bend lightning and slightly feeding into the princess’ thirst for control.
The latest casting reinforces de Leon’s range from fantasy to more dramatic roles, which include a maid-turned-cold-survivalist in Triangle of Sadness, and as a concerned Jewish mother in Between the Temples. De Leon was also in Amazon’s action-comedy Jackpot.
De Leon is also starring in the second season of Nine Perfect Strangers, which begins streaming on Disney+.
Besides De Leon, Filipino-American actor Jon Jon Briones will also join the show. He will be playing Master Piandao, a Fire Nation swordsman and former member of the Fire Army, in Season 3. Best known for playing the Engineer in the West End revival of Miss Saigon in 2014, Briones also starred as the disgraced Dr. Richard Hanover in Ryan Murphy’s drama series Ratched and as the father of Gianni Versace’s murderer in Murphy’s separate drama American Crime Story.
Briones’ two children, Isa and Teo, are also respected rising actors: Isa stars as Dr. Santos in the harrowing medical drama The Pitt, while Teo stars as the cursed Charlie Lewis in Final Destination: Bloodlines.
