diff --git a/fennel/CHANGELOG.md b/fennel/CHANGELOG.md
index 21a48c7aa..03ac77843 100644
--- a/fennel/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/fennel/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## [1.5.13] - 2024-08-29
+- Allow not passing a column for optional types in struct
+
 ## [1.5.12] - 2024-08-29
 - Add support for timestamp dtype parsing in case of non timestamp field.
 
diff --git a/fennel/testing/test_cast_df_to_schema.py b/fennel/testing/test_cast_df_to_schema.py
index f2633d058..ab420cc66 100644
--- a/fennel/testing/test_cast_df_to_schema.py
+++ b/fennel/testing/test_cast_df_to_schema.py
@@ -514,6 +514,15 @@ def test_cast_col_to_pandas_dtype():
             "d": b"hello world",
         }
     ]
+    parsed_value = [
+        {
+            "a": 1,
+            "b": {"a": 1, "b": 2, "c": 3},
+            "c": [1, 2, 3, 4],
+            "d": b"hello world",
+            "e": pd.NA,
+        }
+    ]
     data = pd.Series([value], name="testing")
     data_type = schema_proto.DataType(
         array_type=schema_proto.ArrayType(
@@ -555,6 +564,16 @@ def test_cast_col_to_pandas_dtype():
                                 bytes_type=schema_proto.BytesType()
                             ),
                         ),
+                        schema_proto.Field(
+                            name="e",
+                            dtype=schema_proto.DataType(
+                                optional_type=schema_proto.OptionalType(
+                                    of=schema_proto.DataType(
+                                        timestamp_type=schema_proto.TimestampType()
+                                    )
+                                )
+                            ),
+                        ),
                     ]
                 )
             )
@@ -565,7 +584,7 @@ def test_cast_col_to_pandas_dtype():
     pandas_dtype_data = cast_col_to_pandas_dtype(arrow_dtype_data, data_type)
 
     assert pandas_dtype_data.dtype == object
-    assert pandas_dtype_data.tolist()[0] == value
+    assert pandas_dtype_data.tolist()[0] == parsed_value
 
 
 def test_optional_timestamp_cast_col_to_pandas_dtype():
diff --git a/fennel/testing/test_utils.py b/fennel/testing/test_utils.py
index 6e1bd2892..40951c832 100644
--- a/fennel/testing/test_utils.py
+++ b/fennel/testing/test_utils.py
@@ -185,9 +185,14 @@ def parse_datetime_in_value(
                 )
         output: Dict[Any, Any] = {}
         for field in dtype.struct_type.fields:
-            output[field.name] = parse_datetime_in_value(
-                value[field.name], field.dtype
-            )
+            dtype = field.dtype
+            name = field.name
+            if not dtype.HasField("optional_type") and name not in value:
+                raise ValueError(
+                    f"value not found for non optional field : {field}"
+                )
+            if name in value:
+                output[name] = parse_datetime_in_value(value[name], dtype)
         return output
     else:
         return value
@@ -312,9 +317,16 @@ def convert_val_to_pandas_dtype(
         fields = data_type.struct_type.fields
         output = {}
         for field in fields:
-            output[field.name] = convert_val_to_pandas_dtype(
-                value[field.name], field.dtype, nullable
-            )
+            dtype = field.dtype
+            name = field.name
+            if not dtype.HasField("optional_type") and name not in value:
+                raise ValueError(
+                    f"value not found for non optional field : {field}"
+                )
+            if name in value:
+                output[name] = convert_val_to_pandas_dtype(
+                    value[name], dtype, nullable
+                )
         return output
 
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 8d948eea9..2dbe0cf06 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [tool.poetry]
 name = "fennel-ai"
-version = "1.5.12"
+version = "1.5.13"
 description = "The modern realtime feature engineering platform"
 authors = ["Fennel AI <developers@fennel.ai>"]
 packages = [{ include = "fennel" }]