Simone Ashley Is in the Fast Lane

Simone Ashley is effortlessly tucked into the corner of her favorite lunch spot in Notting Hill. She's the picture of casual cool in a red cap, sweatshirt, leggings, and knee-high Hunter wellies. I spot her nestled amid the packed tables mid-bite into a turmeric chicken salad and chatting with her publicist.

As I'm escorted over, the maître d' greets her with a warm smile and a familiar "How's your mum?" She nods, offering a gracious response. Clearly, this is a regular spot for the Bridgerton star.

Around us, tables are filled with young women catching on gossip. I ask Ashley if she ever finds it difficult to grab a bite without being noticed. She tilts her head, a playful hint that she's already exchanged a few knowing smiles with admirers since sitting down. Gesturing toward a nearby table of South Asian women, she acknowledges her fan base is largely made up of young women of color. Her breakout role as Kate Sharma in Bridgerton, the fierce and unapologetically herself leading lady of season two, has clearly struck a chord.

"I love when girls come up to me and say, 'Oh my God, I feel so seen when I see you,'" she says with a grin. Though she genuinely appreciates the recognition, she leans in and suggests we move somewhere quieter. We slip out and head to her go-to juice spot, a more intimate setting where the crowd thins and conversation flows more freely.

Ashley is fresh from a fitting with her go-to stylist Rebecca Corbin-Murray, the woman behind her sleek red carpet looks, including the sculptural pink Prada dress she stunned in at last year's British Fashion Awards. "I love Prada. Love Prada," she says. "I think I'm wearing some for my upcoming press [tour]. Who else? Chanel. I'm really loving Chanel at the moment."

Fashion is a playground for Ashley and a chance to step into different versions of herself, much like her acting, and she's gearing up for her next big fashion moment—the press tour for Picture This, the British South Asian rom-com in which she is the lead. Her looks are inspired by some of her favorite classic romance films. "Julia Roberts is a massive inspo. I love that she has big, curly hair like me, but she pairs it with those '90s outfits. We also looked at Rachel Green in Friends. They were influences, but really, the common thread was that '90s era of fashion—clean-cut lines, very minimal, very Calvin Klein. It was fitting because I attended the Calvin Klein show in New York [recently], which was really special," she says.

She lights up when discussing Zendaya and Chappell Roan, who inspire her not just for their style but also for their fearless versatility. "I want to be a multi-hyphenate. I want to do everything," she declares, eyes gleaming with ambition. "I want to speak to fashion, to different art forms, to women. My demographic is young women, and I remember being that girl, looking up to women like Beyoncé, Rihanna, Toni Braxton—women who embodied confidence, intelligence, talent."

She pauses, reflecting. "That's what it's about, isn't it? Making people feel seen," she continues. And that's exactly what Picture This, her latest project, sets out to do. The film pays homage to greats like Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha, a visionary who has paved the way for a new generation of filmmakers. Twenty-two years after that iconic release, Picture This arrives as a timely reminder of the power of representation on-screen.

Ashley plays Pia, a hot-headed, self-assured photographer who reluctantly embarks on a series of five dates ahead of her sister's wedding after a fateful reading with an astrologer. The journey is anything but smooth. Think hilariously awkward encounters featuring an unbearable wellness fanatic, a boy hopelessly in love with her mother, and several other unsuitable suitors introduced by well-meaning family members, all propelled by Pia's wit.

"I just hope … [that] it just makes people happy and that people don't overanalyze it. I just wanted it to be something that celebrated my culture, [that] put a girl like me in the forefront like … Bridget Jones, and that just makes people laugh and smile," she says.

Picture This and the latest installment of the Bridget Jones series share more than just rom-com DNA. While love is a theme, the real prize isn't finding a man. They're both about the journey to finding oneself after a period of disconnection. The thing Picture This gets right is what Bend It Like Beckham did so well. Its characters are warm rather than caricatures, a testament to what happens when the people behind the camera reflect those on-screen. "We didn't want to make fun of the culture. We wanted to celebrate it but interweave humor in it as well," Ashley says. "It wasn't the culture that was funny; it was the characters, the lines, the situations. It wasn't like, 'Oh, we're making fun of Indian culture.'"

The real test was earning her family's seal of approval. "I showed it to my family at Christmas, and they loved it. My mum was like, 'God, it's like a real movie.' And I was like, 'Because it is a real movie, Mum…'" she says.

Ashley grew up in what she describes as a normal household with her mum, dad, and older brother. It was her mum who truly nurtured her ambitions. "My mum was really supportive," she says, which is perhaps the root of her confidence. "Since I was younger, she always drove me to singing and dance lessons. If I wanted piano books or anything like that, she made it happen. We didn't come from money, but she worked really hard to make sure those opportunities were available to me. Even though she might have hoped for a more stable, conventional career, she never stood in my way. She let me forge my own path."

She acknowledges that early support is crucial for many artists pursuing something so uncertain, where success hinges on a mix of talent, timing, and luck. "The older I got and the more I worked, the more my family trusted that I knew what I was doing," she adds.

When it came to Picture This, Ashley wasn't just the star. She was a driving force behind the scenes too. Taking on her first producer role, she played a key part in casting and script development, bringing fresh ideas to the set. "At first, there were elements that felt a bit too stereotypical, so I was like, 'Hey, let's make her cool. Let's humanize this girl,'" she says. Her influence helped shape the character into someone authentic and relatable, ensuring the film felt fresh and true to its audience.

On a call, Prarthana Mohan, the film's director, echoes that sentiment. "Simone was amazing [and] such a wonderful partner. She was already on the film when I was brought on, and when I found out she was attached, I was super thrilled! She's such an amazing actor, and I got to know more of her thoughtful side," she says.

Mohan is full of praise for Ashley's tenacious, detail-oriented approach to the role: "She was very keen to make sure we were focusing on intentional representation, which is something very close to my heart. Even something as simple as embracing our natural hair texture was important to both of us. We're both curly girls, and we wanted Pia to embrace her natural hair."

It takes a certain kind of confidence to step into a producer role for the first time and ace it. I ask Ashley whether that confidence was something she was born with or had to cultivate. She takes a moment before answering, considering the weight of the question.

"Yeah, I think it was always in me," she says. "I don't know where it came from. I think I was humbled a lot as a kid. Being a dark-skinned kid, you are fucking humbled. You get bullied. You don't know why certain things are happening or not happening because of your skin color." She pauses, her expression reflective. "I guess there was never any arrogance in me, and then that turned into empowerment, realizing I can be that girl—the girl on the red carpet, on the runway, in the movies like Audrey Hepburn, or Beyoncé," she continues.

That realization was a turning point. Ashley began to understand that confidence wasn't about external validation but something deeper. It was about purpose, about defining her own narrative. "To get there, it has to come from within. What's the message I want to share with the world? What kind of woman do I want to be?" she says. For Ashley, confidence didn't just appear; it was built through discipline and perseverance. Each hour of practice was a step toward mastering her craft. "It starts with talent," she says. "Okay, I've got to work really hard. I was always training singing, putting the hours in, failing, and learning. I think that's self-belief—when you really understand the core value of what it is to be successful or whatever it is you want in life."

After ordering us a couple of coffees, she settles back in, thoughtful yet resolute. "I've always been a dreamer. From 10 or 11, I just knew [acting] is it. I'd write letters to myself, almost manifesting it. I was willing to do whatever it took," she says.

She laughs, recalling a recent moment of rediscovery: "I showed them to my best mate the other day, and he was like, 'Oh my gosh, that's so cool.' The letters say, 'You're gonna make it. You're gonna make it.' I called him once and said, 'I'm having a bad day,' and he just said, 'For fuck's sake, Simone, read those letters.' I was like, 'Oh my God.' It just kicked me up the ass."

She leans back, her voice softer now. "You know when people say 'Do it for your inner child'? I take that seriously. That little girl who believed so fiercely, I owe it to her," she says.

Ashley's fierce self-belief is paying off, as she has multiple projects on the horizon. For example, she's set to take on a significant role in the highly anticipated F1 alongside fellow British star Damson Idris and Hollywood heavyweight Brad Pitt. Details online are scarce, and she's careful not to reveal too much, but she's happy to offer praise for her co-star.

"Have you met Damson?" she asks, grinning. "I'm so happy for him and everything that's coming for him this year. He's just such a great guy, [a] really great friend. I mean, this film, gosh, has been going for years. … I met for this movie, I think, before Bridgerton even came out."

Delays, including industry strikes, meant filming stretched on longer than expected. "Obviously, with the strikes and delays, we finally wrapped in Abu Dhabi in December," she says. "It's been a long time, and you know, it's Damson and Brad's movie. I'm just so grateful that I can be part of it, and yeah, we've toured with the Grand Prix. We were filming at the real races."

The logistics of filming in such a high-octane environment were intense. "You had to work as a team. Sometimes, we literally had one take for certain shots. Like, you'd see on the call sheet eight minutes to get this one thing because we were shooting alongside the races," she says.

It was unlike anything she'd done before. "Oh, it was amazing, the adrenaline," she says. "It was kind of like theater. It felt so live." She's genuinely buzzing at the memory of shooting. "I'm thinking about it now," she continues. "[It's just] the [craziest] thing I think I've ever done in my life. You hear the crowd and the fireworks and the cars. Everything's just so fast-paced and noisy, and we're all together as a little unit. It was just one of the craziest things I think I've ever been part of."

Of course, there was also Brad Pitt. "Really great, really lovely. Just grateful I got to be part of it. I mean, it's a Brad Pitt movie. [It's] kind of awesome," she says.

Action films have been Ashley's passion from a young age. "I watched Kill Bill from a really young age," she says, laughing. "It's iconic. Yeah, yeah. It's kind of problematic, isn't it? I mean, I watched Disney movies too. But I wish I could do something like that."

With F1, she feels like she's taken a step closer to that dream: high-speed, high stakes, and completely immersive. "I want to do an action movie, 1000%. [I want to] train [and] do something really awesome like Tomb Raider or something," she says.

Reflecting on her career, she acknowledges how far she's come. F1 feels worlds away from her early days on Sex Education, the wildly popular British Netflix series that explored love, relationships, and identity through the lives of students at Moordale Secondary School. Known for its refreshingly candid approach to intimacy, it became a global phenomenon, launching the careers of its young cast, including Ashley. She played Olivia Hanan, a member of Moordale's elite social clique.

"Something happens when you put a uniform on. We all went hyper and acted like kids. It was hilarious," she recalls. "We had the best time. None of us were in the public eye as much back then. We were all like 20, 21, no real responsibilities. Now, life's gotten a bit more serious. People have shit to do."

Still, she and her former castmates are thriving. "It's hard to keep in touch because everyone's so busy traveling the world [and] working. Ncuti [Gatwa's] got Doctor Who, Aimee [Lou Wood's] got The White Lotus, Emma [Mackey's] smashing it. But even if we don't see each other, we're always cheering each other on," she says.

Ashley is embracing this new chapter in her career, yet her days on Bridgerton and Sex Education remain close to her heart. "I do want to focus on this new chapter," she shares.

Still, returning to Bridgerton always feels like coming home. "I was filming yesterday, actually. It was so nostalgic. We were in the Bridgerton house, and it's wild because life has moved on, but the place stays the same. It's been five, six years since the show started. I've been on it since 2022. So what, three years? But stepping back in feels like no time has passed," she says.

In the upcoming fourth season, Ashley will reprise her role as Kate, now Viscountess Bridgerton. While this season shifts its focus to Benedict Bridgerton's love story with Sophie Baek, played by Yerin Ha, viewers can still expect a healthy dose of Kate and Anthony (played by Jonathan Bailey).

As if she weren't busy enough, Ashley is also gearing up to launch a pop career. She's cautious, careful not to reveal too much just yet, but she does give me a glimpse into what's coming. Hesitant to pinpoint exactly what sound we can expect from her, she says, "I'm gonna wait to answer that because we're still finding the sound. But I think definitely pop with some elements of R&B." She nods, adding, "I'm in the studio at the moment."

With an increasingly busy schedule, I ask how she decompresses. "I love working out. I go for walks with my dog. I just hang out with my friends. I can be on my own for a bit, but then I'm like, 'Cool, I want to be around people.' I love organizing big Christmas things with friends, summer get-togethers. I want to be that person, bringing people together," she says.

While Ashley is open about her ambitions—whether in acting, music, or the next phase of her career—there are some things she keeps just for herself. She's warm, engaging, and quick to laugh, but there's a quiet protectiveness when it comes to her private life.

Fame may have changed the world around her, but she remains grounded, choosing what to share and what to keep close. As she steps into this new era of balancing blockbuster roles, creative ventures, and personal growth, one thing is clear: She's doing it on her own terms.

Photographer: Max vom Hofe

Stylist: Gary David Moore

Hairstylist: Peter Lux

Makeup Artist: Alex Babsky

Manicurist: Emily Rose Lansley