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Ever since her breakout role in Triangle of Sadness, Dolly de Leon has been making waves in the international scene. Just this year alone, she went viral for her portrayal of Detective Sofia Gonzalez in the Apple TV+ series Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed for her authentic Filipino-English accent. The latest trailer for Dreamworks Animation’s Forgotten Island also gave viewers a glimpse of her voiceover role as Fatima. If that wasn’t enough, de Leon will be joining the highly anticipated second season of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender. And if fans are excited to see her in the show, the actress is doubly so.
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Dolly de Leon Joins the Avatar Universe
In Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2, Team Avatar travels to the Earth Kingdom capital of Ba Sing Se to convince the Earth King to join their cause against Fire Lord Ozai. Along the way, they meet blind earthbender Toph, who joins the crew and becomes Aang’s earthbending teacher. But hot on their tail is Princess Azula and her friends, who are determined to finish the mission Prince Zuko couldn’t.
It’s also in season 2 where viewers meet Lo and Li. In the animated series, the two were Princess Azula’s twin elderly advisers and firebending teachers, despite neither of them being firebenders themselves. De Leon will play the twins in the live-action series, a fact she considers a highlight of the international era of her career. “I’m so excited. Among all the things that I’ve done in the past four years, this is the one I’m most excited about because I’m playing twins and I’ve never played characters like Lo and Li before in my entire life,” she tells MEGA Asia.
While de Leon is no stranger to playing all kinds of characters on screen and stage, she shares that Lo and Li channel a new side of her artistry that viewers may not be expecting from her. “These are very different. It’s a different Dolly that people are going to see. So I’m really excited about that. And it’s very light. It’s almost leaning on comedy now. So I’m excited about that.”
Fans of the franchise may know what they’re getting from Lo and Li, but de Leon teases that the twins aren’t an exact copy and paste from the animated series. “Lo and Li [from the live action series] are very different from who they are in the animated series. Let me put it that way. They’re very different. If in the animated series, they were like the elders in Azula’s life, here, they’re different. They represent something else,” the award-winning actress expresses.
The moment makes for another professional milestone for Dolly de Leon, as well as a full-circle moment as someone who went from not knowing much about the show to being a devoted fan. “Before, I didn’t know anything really about it. My daughter wanted me to watch it, but I ignored her,” she jokingly admits. However, once the news came that she was cast on the show, de Leon locked in and did her research. “The moment that I learned that they wanted to get me, I binged all the episodes, all the animated episodes, and I’m a huge fan. I love it.”
Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 streams on Netflix beginning June 25.
Featured Image by Kim Angela Santos
Photos: NETFLIX (via Website)
Frequently Asked Questions
Dolly de Leon plays Lo and Li, twin advisers and firebending teachers to Princess Azula, in Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2. She portrays both characters — a dual role she describes as unlike anything she has taken on in her career to date.
According to de Leon, the live-action versions of Lo and Li differ significantly from their animated counterparts. Where the animated twins served as elder advisers to Azula, the live-action series reimagines the characters to represent something distinct — details the actress has kept deliberately vague ahead of the premiere.
Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 begins streaming on Netflix on June 25, 2026. The season follows Team Avatar’s journey to Ba Sing Se and introduces key characters including earthbender Toph and antagonist Princess Azula.
In 2026, Dolly de Leon appeared as Detective Sofia Gonzalez in the Apple TV+ series Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed and lent her voice to Fatima in DreamWorks Animation’s Forgotten Island. Both roles followed her 2022 breakout in Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness.
De Leon was not a viewer of the series before her casting. Once she received confirmation that the production wanted her, she binged the entire animated series and became, by her own account, a devoted fan — calling the Lo and Li role the highlight of her international career so far.
