Simone Ashwini Pillai, known professionally asSimone Ashley, is aBritish actress. She is known for her roles in the Netflix period drama Bridgerton (2022–present) and comedy-drama Sex Education (2019–2021).
Career
Early work (2016–2021)
Ashley's first acting role was in two episodes of the CBBC fantasy teen drama Wolfblood as Zuhra. This was followed by appearances in the thriller series Guilt (2016) and the ITV crime drama Broadchurch (2017). She made her feature film debut in 2018 with a small role in Boogie Man as Aarti, and a more prominent role in Kill Ben Lyk as one of the many characters named Ben Lyk.
From 2019 to 2021, Ashley played the recurring character Olivia Hanan in the Netflix comedy-drama Sex Education. She also appeared in the ITV psychological thriller miniseries The Sister as Elise Fox in 2020.
Breakthrough
Ashley was named one of Variety's 2021 Brits to Watch. Having auditioned in 2020, it was announced in February 2021 that Ashley would star as leading lady Kate opposite Jonathan Bailey as Anthony in the second series of the Shondaland-produced Netflix romance period drama Bridgerton, based on the second novel in Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series,The Viscount Who Loved Me. The series was released in March 2022. She is set to reprise her role for the third series.
In 2022, Ashley featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in European entertainment, the Time 100 Next, and The Hollywood Reporter's Great British and Irish Film and TV Breakouts. She appeared on the cover of British Vogue's December 2022 issue. She will play Indira, a sister of Ariel in the 2023 live-action film adaptation of Disney's The Little Mermaid.
